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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
translation icon : 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

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
rootstock
vsrhizome
  • Specialized
7.9

An underground plant stem that grows roots below and shoots above

is the standard botanical term for that exact structure

How Spreading

stolon
  • Specialized
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.