[Ads-l] rhizome = stem (wasabi)

[Barretts Mail]

Nearly all of the wasabi served in restaurants and sold in grocery stores is horseradish as wasabi is slow-growing and difficult to grow. In recent years, a new industry of growing wasabi has been on the rise in the Pacific Northwest (including BC) and the UK.

Although all of the plant can be eaten, the stem of the plant is the part that is ground up and is commercially valuable. It is commonly referred to as the “rhizome” as per Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasabi <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasabi>). 

The point is also made by Jennifer Bloeser, a wasabi farmer, in the video “Garden Time: Wasabi Growing” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xG6tUnMcEc <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xG6tUnMcEc>) at about 2 minutes in.

The Wasabi Store (http://www.thewasabistore.com/shop/qce5g8s7fdyyhhs4i09qq242vz0z9r <http://www.thewasabistore.com/shop/qce5g8s7fdyyhhs4i09qq242vz0z9r>) is even insistent on the word “rhizome": "Wasabi root (actually rhizome) is shipped trimmed as shown with approximately 2 inches of stem and no roots.”

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org