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They Aren't All Bulbs

Technically a bulb is a bud composed of fleshy, leaf-like structures attached to a disc-like stem. All bulbs are perennial, and the structure is designed to store surplus foods for the next season. Some bulbs are scaly; others, like the hyacinth, are made up of rings. These smooth bulbs are sometimes called tunicated.

As well as storing the essential materials for the plant’s resurrection the next season, the bulb is also a means of asexual reproduction. Scaly bulbs can be broken apart, and each scale will produce a new bulb. Many tunicated bulbs can be sliced into wedges, and each chunk will produce a new plant. Many bulbs produce offsets call bulblets.

But a bulb isn’t a stem, a seed or a root. It is a bud. Not all underground structures are bulbs. Can you properly match the following plants with the type of storage organ?

   
  1. Onion
  2. Caladium
  3. Potato
  4. Crocus
  5. Peanut
  6. Dahlia
  7. Lily-of-the-valley
  8. Garlic
  9. Jerusalem artichoke
  10. Glads
  11. Bearded iris
  12. Grape hyacinth
  13. Colchicum
  14. Solomon’s seal
  15. Daffodil
 a.) Bulb
b.) Corm (a bulb-like stem)
c.) Pip (an underground root stock)
d.) Rhizome (a fleshy creeping stem)
e.) Tuber (a swollen subterranean branch)
f.) Tuberous root (requires a portion of the stem to grow)
g.) Seed

 

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