DCHP-3

rock weed

DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

an edible lichen of the genus, Umbilicaria (or, less often, the genus Gyrophora), having circular, leathery, gray­to-brownish thalli found attached to certain rocks by a threadlike holdfast.

Quotations

1793
These figures are made by scratching the Rock weed (moss) off the Rocks with the Point of a knife or some other instrument.
1821
Our people . . . for three days past have subsisted chiefly on rock weed.
1915
The "rock weed," wakwund (rock tripe) is often eaten in the bush when other foods fail. It is scraped off the rocks with a flat stick into a blanket, then washed and boiled and eaten. The water becomes a little slimy, but it makes a nourishing soup.