Another important role of rhizomes is to use the nutrients that have been stored and supply them to the plant during reproduction by vegetative propagation in order to ensure plant development over the winter. Learn how to cultivate a plant with a rhizome transplant, such as bamboo.
Underground Stem Modifications
Some underground stems have been adapted to store food and survive in harsh environments. The following are some subterranean stem modifications
Rhizome
These are non-green and have distinct nodes and internodes. Both axillary and apical buds are present. This has a brownish hue to it. The common types of rhizomes are fleshy due to the storage of food material. It also contains terminal buds. Take, for example, ginger.
The rhizome rootstock develops vertically upwards rather than horizontally. Plants with rhizomes include bananas and Alocasia indica.
Bulb
There are a lot of scale leaves that are meaty. The bulb’s base is made up of a clump of adventitious roots. For instance, onion and garlic.
Scaly or tunicated bulbs are possible. A coating of dry membranous scale leaves surrounds the tunicated bulb. On a scaly bulb, there is no tunic.
Corm
This shortened depiction of the stem’s vertical development. It has a spherical shape and a flattened base. It contains different nodes and internodes. Adventitious roots can be located near the body’s base or throughout it. On the sides, axillary buds can be detected. Consider the case of Colocasia.
Tuber
It is the plant’s fleshy, food-storing component. The potato is the most widely consumed tuber in the world. The ground covers the potato’s lowest portion, where the adventitious shoots develop. A collection of depressions known as “eyes” cover it, each of which represents a node. It doesn’t have any unintentional roots. These are mostly used for food and grow at a glacial rate.
Modifications to the Subaerial Stem
These plants’ stems are partially above ground and partially underground. These are replaced with:
Runner
It’s a horizontally growing creeper on the soil’s surface. At the nodes, scale leaves, adventitious roots, and axillary buds can be found. Runners emerge from axillary buds.
A mother runner gives birth to a large number of runners who run in all directions. Runners split off and form their own plant, allowing for vegetative reproduction. For instance, C-Cynodon.
A type of underground runner is Sobole.
Sucker
It comes from the base of the main stem. Before detaching from the original plant, it produces adventitious roots and leafy shoots. After flowing horizontally beneath the soil for a period, it develops obliquely upwards. Consider the herb mentha.
Stolon
These bloom for a short time in the air before bending down to touch the ground. From the terminal bud, a new stem and adventitious roots grow. Stolon sprouts from the base of the main stem. Take, for example, jasmine.
In horticulture, branch tips are lowered to reach the earth, where they strike the root. Natural stolons can be found on Mentha spicata.
Offset
It is shorter and thicker, and it is found in aquatic plants. It emerges from the axis of the leaf and spreads horizontally. Take, for example, Pistia. The leaves appear above ground, while the adventitious roots appear underground. With only one internode, it’s a small runner.
Underground stem
Underground stems are plants that have been genetically modified to produce stem tissue while remaining below the soil surface. They serve as food and nutrition storage tissues, as well as new clone replication and perennation. Bulbs, corms, rhizomes, stolons, and tubers are among the different kinds.
Changes to the stem
- Plants have evolved stems that are adapted to a specific habitat and environment. A rhizome is a horizontally growing underground modified stem with nodes and internodes.
- Ginger and ferns, for example, can grow vertical shoots from the buds on their rhizomes. Rhizomes and corms are similar, but corms are more spherical and meaty (such as in gladiolus).
- Because of the nutrients stored in corms, some plants can survive the winter. Stolons are stems with nodes that can grow new plants that run almost parallel to the ground or just below the surface.
- Strawberry runners are a type of stolon that climbs above ground and produces new clone plants at nodes at varying intervals. Tubers are modified stems that can store starch, similar to potatoes.
- Tubers resemble inflated stolons with multiple atypical or adventitious buds (which we recognise as the “eyes” on potatoes).
- A bulb is a modified stem with expanded fleshy leaves growing from the stem or surrounding the base of the stem, which functions as an underground storage unit, as seen in the iris.
haustorium
A parasitic plant’s highly modified stem or root, or a fungus’ hairlike filament’s specialised branch or tube (hypha). The haustorium is a tube that collects nutrients and water by penetrating the host’s tissues. To reroute resources, parasitic plants such as dodder and mistletoe create a vascular union with the host plant.
Conclusion
In addition to providing energy to plants through stored food, rhizomes provide nourishment for people, such as ginger and turmeric, which are used as spices or seasonings to improve the taste of foods.