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Root vegetables are underground plant parts eaten by humans or animals as food. In agricultural and culinary terminology, the term applies to true roots such as taproots and tuberous roots as well as non-roots such as bulbs , corms , rhizomes , and stem tubers .
There are also many wild edible plant stems. In North America, these include the shoots of woodsorrel (usually eaten along with the leaves), chickweeds, galinsoga, common purslane, Japanese knotweed, winter cress and other wild mustards, thistles (de-thorned), stinging nettles (cooked), bellworts, violets, amaranth and slippery elm, among many others.
A geophyte (earth+plant) is a plant with an underground storage organ including true bulbs, corms, tubers, tuberous roots, enlarged hypocotyls, and rhizomes. Most plants with underground stems are geophytes but not all plants that are geophytes have underground stems. Geophytes are often physiologically active even when they lack leaves.
The enlarged area of the tuber can be produced at the end or middle of a root or involve the entire root. It is thus different in origin, but similar in function and appearance, to a stem tuber. Plants with tuberous roots include the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), cassava, dahlia, and Sagittaria (arrowhead) species. [citation needed]
Tubers develop from either the stem or the root. Stem tubers grow from rhizomes or runners that swell from storing nutrients while root tubers propagate from roots that are modified to store nutrients and get too large and produce a new plant. [22] Examples of stem tubers are potatoes and yams and examples of root tubers are sweet potatoes and ...
A rhizome is the main stem of the plant that runs typically underground and horizontally to the soil surface. [5] [6] Rhizomes have nodes and internodes and auxiliary buds. [7] Roots do not have nodes and internodes and have a root cap terminating their ends. [8]
Roots of the legumes provide a valuable source of protein, minerals, and carbohydrates. Most turnips have white skin and the portion of the plant that is seen above the ground is purple, red, or green in color. The root below the surface is known as the taproot and is usually around 5-20 centimeters in diameter. [292] Pteris ensiformis
The tap root can be persistent throughout the life of the plant but is most often replaced later in the plant's development by a fibrous root system. [2] [3] A persistent taproot system forms when the radicle keeps growing and smaller lateral roots form along the taproot. The shape of taproots can vary but the typical shapes include: