Rhizome

Rhizome [ Botany ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names


	A usually elongate and branched modified plant stem which grows horizontally, below or on the surface of the soil, often appears enlarged by food storage. Roots, buds and leaves then emerges at different point from the nodes.

Rhizomes are creeping thickened stem (not a root) differ from other storage structures (like: tuber, bulbs, etc.) by growing horizontally partially or entirely under the surface of the ground, consisting of a series of nodes with roots. The primary growing point is at one end of the rhizome; additional growing points form along its sides from the nodes.

Advertising

Holdfast roots [ Botany ]
Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Some species of climbing plants develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place.

Climbing plants, like the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place. Usually the Holdfast roots die at the end of the first season, but in some species they are perennial. In the tropics some of the large climbing plants have hold-fast roots by which they attach themselves, and long, cord-like roots that extend downward through the air and may lengthen and branch for several years until they strike the soil and become absorbent roots.

Major references and further lectures:
1) E. N. Transeau “General Botany” Discovery Publishing House, 1994