Underground stems are modified plant parts that derive from stem tissue but exist under the soil surface.[1] They function as storage tissues for food and nutrients, facilitate the propagation of new clones, and aid in perennation (survival from one growing season to the next).[2] Types of underground stems include bulbs, corms, rhizomes, stolons, and tubers.[3][4][5][6][7]
Plants have two structures or axes of growth, which can be best seen from seed germination and growth. Seedlings develop two axes of growth: stems, which develop upward out of the soil, and roots, which develop downward. The roots are modified to have root hairs and branch indiscriminately with cells that take in water and nutrients, while the stems are modified to move water and nutrients to and from the leaves and flowers. [8][9][10] Stems have nodes with buds where leaves and flowers arise at specific locations, while roots do not. Plants use underground stems to multiply by asexual reproduction and to survive from one year to the next, usually through dormancy.[11] Some plants produce stems modified to store energy and preserve a location of potential growth to survive a cold or dry period which normally is a period of inactive growth, and when that period is over the plants resume new growth from the underground stems.[12][13][14][15]
Being underground protects the stems from the elements during the dormancy period, such as freezing and thawing in winter, extreme heat and drought in summer, or other potentially harmful elements such as fire. They can also protect plants from heavy grazing pressure from animals, the plant might be eaten to the ground but new growth can occur from below ground stem that can not be reached by the herbivores.[16][17][18][19] Several plants, including weedy species,[20] use underground stems to spread and colonize large areas,[21] since the stems do not have to be supported or strong, less energy and resources are needed to produce these stems and often these plants have more mass underground than above ground.
- ^ QA International Collectif (2007). The Visual Guide to Understanding Plants & the Vegetable Kingdom - Plants & the Vegetable Kingdom. Québec Amerique. pp. 35–. ISBN 978-2-7644-0894-0.
- ^ V. B. Rastogi (1 January 1997). Modern Biology. Pitambar Publishing. pp. 22–. ISBN 978-81-209-0442-2.
- ^ "3: Nasal Olfactory Organs andOlfactory Bulbs in Blennies", The Biology of Blennies, CRC Press, pp. 199–226, 2009-01-05, doi:10.1201/b10301-14, ISBN 9780429063527, retrieved 2023-09-27
- ^ Nursery stock, BSI British Standards, doi:10.3403/00174760, retrieved 2023-09-27
- ^ Rosenberg, Noah (2016). "From Trees to Rhizomes". Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 59 (2): 246–252. doi:10.1353/pbm.2017.0009. ISSN 1529-8795. PMID 37765717. S2CID 78995989.
- ^ Emschermann, Peter (1987-01-28). "Creeping propagation stolons - an effective propagation system of the freshwater entoproct Urnatella gracilis LEIDY [Barentsiidae)". Archiv für Hydrobiologie. 108 (3): 439–448. doi:10.1127/archiv-hydrobiol/108/1987/439. ISSN 0003-9136. S2CID 89189547.
- ^ Figure 3 in Chapagain, Deep J.; Meilby, Henrik; Ghimire, Suresh K. (2019). "Plant density and life history traits of Aconitum spicatum in North-central Nepal: Effects of elevation and anthropogenic disturbances". PeerJ. 7: e7574. doi:10.7717/peerj.7574. PMC 6743441. PMID 31565560.
- ^ Lew, Roger R. (2000), "Electrobiology of Root Hairs", Root Hairs, Tokyo: Springer Japan, pp. 115–139, doi:10.1007/978-4-431-68370-4_8, ISBN 978-4-431-68372-8, retrieved 2023-09-27
- ^ Ungar, Irwin A. (2017-11-01), "Seed Germination and Seed-Bank Ecology in Halophytes", Seed Development and Germination, Routledge, pp. 599–628, doi:10.1201/9780203740071-23, ISBN 978-0-203-74007-1, retrieved 2023-09-27
- ^ Table 1 in Yang, Lijuan; Yang, Kejun (2020). "Biological function of Klebsiella variicola and its effect on the rhizosphere soil of maize seedlings". PeerJ. 8: e9894. doi:10.7717/peerj.9894. PMC 7501803. PMID 32995084.
- ^ Ralph Persad (1 May 1994). Agricultural Science for the Caribbean. Nelson Thornes. pp. 26–. ISBN 978-0-17-566394-1.
- ^ Linda Berg (23 March 2007). Introductory Botany: Plants, People, and the Environment, Media Edition. Cengage Learning. pp. 146–. ISBN 978-0-534-46669-5.
- ^ Nickell, Louis G. (1982), "Axillary Buds", Plant Growth Regulators, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 45–46, doi:10.1007/978-3-642-68204-9_9 (inactive 1 November 2024), ISBN 978-3-642-68206-3, retrieved 2023-09-27
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link) - ^ "Vochysia assua: Fernandez, E., Arguello, L., Jordão, L., Martinelli, G., Shimizu, G. & Gonçalves, D." 2020-05-22. doi:10.2305/iucn.uk.2020-3.rlts.t180255381a180255383.pt. S2CID 243376638.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ Specification for percussive rock-drilling bits, rods and stems. Integral stems, BSI British Standards, doi:10.3403/30309158u, retrieved 2023-09-27
- ^ Seed Dormancy. 2020. doi:10.3390/books978-3-03943-654-5. ISBN 978-3-03943-654-5.
- ^ Scerri, Eric (2013-07-18), "From Missing Elements to Synthetic Elements", A Tale of Seven Elements, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/oso/9780195391312.003.0015, ISBN 978-0-19-539131-2, retrieved 2023-09-27
- ^ Figure 6 in Liu, Wenting; Wang, Tianle; Zhang, Shuang; Ding, Lijun; Wei, Zhijun (2018). "Grazing influences Stipa breviflora seed germination in desert grasslands of the Inner Mongolia Plateau". PeerJ. 6: e4447. doi:10.7717/peerj.4447. PMC 5835349. PMID 29507838.
- ^ Animals Editorial Office (2021-01-27). "Acknowledgment to Reviewers of Animals in 2020". Animals. 11 (2): 313. doi:10.3390/ani11020313. ISSN 2076-2615. PMC 7911586.
- ^ "Weedy species, relics, and ghosts", The End of the Wild, The MIT Press, 2006, doi:10.7551/mitpress/2733.003.0003, ISBN 9780262300049, retrieved 2023-09-27
- ^ Spilsbury, Richard; Spilsbury, Louise (2008). Plant Habitats. Heinemann-Raintree Library. ISBN 978-1-4329-1502-5.