Bulb
A bulb is an underground storage organ formed from a short stem and fleshy leaf bases. It stores nutrients and can produce new shoots and roots.
Basal plate: The short, flattened stem at a bulb’s base, where roots and fleshy scales attach. It is the bulb’s stem, anchoring the scales and producing roots.
Corm: A short, swollen underground stem that stores nutrients as solid stem tissue. A corm stores food in stem tissue rather than fleshy leaf bases.
Tulip: A spring-flowering plant genus whose species grow from tunicate bulbs. Tulips show how a bulb can support seasonal flowering and renewed growth.
Dormancy: A temporary state of reduced growth that helps an organism endure unfavorable conditions. Many bulbs pause aboveground growth while surviving underground through unfavorable seasons.
Bulb scale: A fleshy leaf or leaf base that stores nutrients in a bulb. These swollen leaf bases make up most of a bulb’s storage tissue.
Rhizome: A horizontal underground stem that produces roots and shoots from its nodes. Unlike a bulb, a rhizome is an elongated stem with distinct nodes.
Onion: A widely cultivated plant whose edible bulb consists of concentric fleshy leaf bases. The onion is a familiar edible example of a true bulb.
Vernalization: The promotion of flowering by prolonged exposure to cold temperatures. Cold exposure can prepare a bulb’s shoot for later flowering.
Apical bud: A growing point at a shoot’s tip that can produce leaves, stems, or flowers. The central bud develops into the bulb’s next shoot.
Tuber: A swollen plant organ, usually a stem or root, that stores nutrients and can produce new growth. A potato tuber stores food in swollen stem tissue, not layered leaf bases.