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Fleshy tissue and starter of escargots with the French bean (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

legume

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'bean' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'fleshy tissue and starter of escargots with the french' is the wordplay.
'fleshy tissue' becomes 'gum' (gum is a kind of tissue. I am not sure about the 'fleshy' bit.).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'starter of' suggests taking the first letters.
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'the french' becomes 'le' ('the' in French).
The first letter of 'escargots' is 'e'.
'gum'+'e' is 'gume'.
'gume' after 'le' is 'LEGUME'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for legume that I've seen before include "Pea-family crop plant" , "A plant of the kind that bears its seeds in pods" , "Pea, bean or lentil?" , "Plant such as the pea or peanut" , "Glue me (anag) - climbing bean or pea plant" .)

I've seen this clue in The Everyman puzzle in The Observer.
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