Rhizome

Also: rhizome – rhizome - a subterranean, more or less perennial shoot of perennial herbaceous plants, as well as shrubs, serving for the storage of reserve substances, vegetative renewal and reproduction. It differs from a root by the presence of scale-like leaves, scars from fallen leaves (sometimes their dry remnants), buds and adventitious roots, and by the absence of a root cap. The rhizome …

Also: rhizome – rhizome - a subterranean, more or less perennial shoot of perennial herbaceous plants, as well as shrubs, serving for the storage of reserve substances, vegetative renewal and reproduction. It differs from a root by the presence of scale-like leaves, scars from fallen leaves (sometimes their dry remnants), buds and adventitious roots, and by the absence of a root cap.

The rhizome annually increases in length and produces aboveground shoots from apical or axillary buds. Rhizomes often form branched systems. Old parts of the rhizome gradually decay. Long rhizomes with significant annual growth increments and well-marked internodes (couch grass) serve primarily for vegetative reproduction and dispersal, short rhizomes with small annual growth increments and closely spaced nodes (iris) — mainly for storage and vegetative renewal. Rhizomes are formed either directly in the soil (lily-of-the-valley, bilberry) — the so-called hypogeogenous, or initially grow as aboveground assimilating shoots which then gradually sink into the soil (lady's mantle) — the so-called epigeogenous.