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A stem tuber is a thickened part of a rhizome or stolon that has been enlarged for use as a storage organ. [10] In general, a tuber is high in starch, e.g. the potato, which is a modified stolon. The term "tuber" is often used imprecisely and is sometimes applied to plants with rhizomes.
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.
In some species (e.g. Cyclamen coum) roots come from the bottom of the tuber, suggesting that it is a stem tuber; in others (e.g. Cyclamen hederifolium) roots come largely from the top of the tuber, suggesting that it is a root tuber. [6] As an example of a combination, juno irises have both bulbs and storage roots. [7]
When fall comes, the above-ground structure of the plant dies, but the tubers survive underground over winter until spring, when they regenerate new shoots that use the stored food in the tuber to grow. As the main shoot develops from the tuber, the base of the shoot close to the tuber produces adventitious roots and lateral buds on the shoot.
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 ...
With cool temperatures, the foliage, roots, rhizomes, and basal bulbs die, but the tubers survive and resprout the following spring when soil temperatures remain above 6 °C (43 °F). [15] They can resprout up to several years later. [20] When the tubers germinate, many rhizomes are initiated and end in a basal bulb near the soil surface.
In some Cyperus species the stolons end with the growth of tubers; the tubers are swollen stolons that form new plants. [10] Some species of crawling plants can also sprout adventitious roots, but are not considered stoloniferous: a stolon is sprouted from an existing stem and can produce a full individual.
Ornamental bulbous plants, often called ornamental bulbs or just bulbs in gardening and horticulture, are herbaceous perennials grown for ornamental purposes, which have underground or near ground storage organs. Botanists distinguish between true bulbs, corms, rhizomes, stem tubers and tuberous roots, any of which may be termed "bulbs" in ...