pasheco

Meaning

Noun

• A soft, dark cake made of baked camas and rockhair (the lichen Alectoria jubata var. fremontii (variety), now Bryoria fremontii).
• A camas bulb or "root".

Origin

• From one of the indigenous languages of western North America. Said by John Kirk Townsend to be from Shoshone passheco. The term entered English through the writings of Lewis and Clark, who were introduced to the edible plant by the Nez Perce.