What does 'Seminalia' even mean?

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  Seminalia means ‘of, relating to, or consisting of seed’. We know what you're thinking, and yes of course we know truffles don't have seeds. But we humans didn't know that for many of the thousands of years we have been enjoying them. Our obsession dates back to 1600 B.C. when the first mention of truffles was penned. The first attributable writing about truffles came from Greek philosopher and pupil or Aristotle, Theophrastus (c. 370 – 286 B.C.) in his text Historia plantarum. Much was written, theorized, and generally not scientifically-proven about them until 1588 when Italian natural philosopher Giambattista della Porta observed their spores. From his text Phytonomonica: “From fungi I have succeeded in collecting seed, very small and black, lying hidden in oblong chabbers or furrows extending from the stalk to the circumference, and chiefly from those which grow on stones, where, when falling, the seed is sown and sprouts with perennial fertility… In truffles, a black seed lies hidden. On this account, they come forth in woods where they have frequently been produced and have rotted away.” This text stimulated further research over the next few hundred years, with little results. In London, 1727, Stephen Switzer wrote in his popular gardening manual The Practical Kitchen Gardener, “It is a pity that we can’t yet find out a method of propagating these much desired dishes; perhaps there might be a method of doing it by the procuring of the earth where they grow, which certainly contains some seminalia or fragments of those tuberous roots which when transplanted out might grow with us…” And so the name stuck, because we loved the story behind it.