Rhizome

It's Wednesday which means its time to look at my understanding of an horticultural word or term. This week we're looking at the rhizome.

Rhizome.

This part of a plant is usually an underground root of a plant. Usually it would grow horizontally and would send out root shoots called nodes. Rhizome can also be called rootstock.

Often if the rhizome is split into several pieces, a new plant may grow from each piece. The rhizome is a plants store for starches and sugars to grow a plant from. This is also what makes certain rhizomes edible. Examples of edible rhizomes would be ginger or turmeric.

For more reading check out the following links

• Wikipedia page on these roots.
• An article from Britannica.
• A few tips on how to propagate plants this way.

Do you grow anything like this? Let me know in the comments or Email me here.