Ophiocordyceps Sinensis - Taxonomy and Naming

Taxonomy and Naming

The species was first described scientifically by Miles Berkeley in 1843 as Sphaeria sinensis; Pier Andrea Saccardo transferred the species to the genus Cordyceps in 1878. The scientific name's etymology is from the Latin cord "club", ceps "head", and sinensis "from China". The fungus was known as Cordyceps sinensis until 2007, when molecular analysis was used to emend the classification of the Cordycipitaceae and the Clavicipitaceae, resulting in the naming of a new family Ophiocordycipitaceae and the transfer of several Cordyceps species to Ophiocordyceps.

In Tibetan it is known as དབྱར་རྩྭ་དགུན་འབུ་ yartsa gunbu, which is the source of the Nepali यार्शागुम्बा, yarshagumba, yarchagumba or yarsagumba. The transliteration in Bhutan is Yartsa Guenboob. It is known as keera jhar, keeda jadi, keeda ghas or 'ghaas fafoond in Hindi. Its name in Chinese Dōng chóng xià cǎo (冬蟲夏草) means "winter worm, summer grass" (i.e., "worm in the winter, plant in the summer"). The Chinese name is a literal translation of the original Tibetan name, which was first recorded in the 15th Century by the Tibetan doctor Zurkhar Namnyi Dorje. In colloquial Tibetan Yartsa gunbu is often shortened to simply "bu" or "yartsa".

In traditional Chinese medicine, its name is often abbreviated as chong cao (蟲草 "insect plant"), a name that also applies to other Cordyceps species, such as C. militaris. In Japanese, it is known by the Japanese reading of the characters for the Chinese name, tōchūkasō (冬虫夏草).

Strangely, sometimes in Chinese English language texts Cordyceps sinensis is referred to as aweto, which is the Māori name for Cordyceps robertsii, a species from New Zealand.

The English term "vegetable caterpillar" is a misnomer, as no plant is involved. "Caterpillar fungus" is a preferable term.