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Glite Dictionary
rhizome

rhizome

2 8.3
A stem that grows sideways underground and sends up shoots and puts down roots
  • noun
  • /ˈraɪzoʊm/
  • Specialized
: rizoma
  • When planting ginger, bury the rhizome about two inches below the soil surface to encourage growth.
  • roots and rhizomes
  • rhizomes and underground stems
  • rhizome sections

So a lot of your grass is spread via rhizome as well.

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Examples

  • A rhizome may be an efficient organ of anchorage, yet provide no effective means of dispersal.

    Academic text (1996)

  • The original shoot cuttings of Potamogeton lacked rhizome tissue.

    Academic text (1996)

  • The intact rhizome will survive until next year.

    Academic text (1992)

  • Some weeds will spread through, through rhizomes and things like that.

  • The earth remained bare, rhizomes shrunken.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Once established, seagrass meadows are able to expand through vegetative clonal growth by rhizome extension.

    Academic text (2012)

  • Because C-Fern lacks the persistent rhizome that characterizes many perennial ferns, it is shorter-lived and grows more like an annual.

    Academic text (1998)

  • In certain species, superficial underground creeping stems (rhizomes) or roots ensure asexual reproduction.

    Academic text (2011)

  • Modified horizontal stems (rhizomes) grow quickly to anchor aquatic plants in unconsolidated, shifting substrates.

    Academic text (1996)

  • The gardener decided to dig up the rhizomes to divide them and regenerate new plants for the spring.

Synonyms

rootstock
vsrhizome
  • Specialized
1 7.9

An underground plant stem that grows roots below and shoots above

is the standard botanical term for that exact structure
rootstalk
vsrhizome
  • Specialized
1 9.1

A stem that grows sideways underground and makes shoots above and roots below to grow new plants

is the same botanical structure but usually named with the standard term

How Spreading

stolon
  • Specialized
1 9.2
rhizome
  • Specialized
2 8.3
rootstalk
  • Specialized
1 9.1
taproot
  • Specialized
1 6.7

Surface Forms

rhizome singular
rhizomes plural

Etymology

Rhizome comes from the Greek root rhiza, which means 'root'. A rhizome is a root-like stem that grows sideways under the soil to make new shoots and roots, so it helps a plant spread and make new plants.