Tuber

• A stem tuber can be defined as a swollen stem that stores water and nutrients.

• These nutrients as well as water are used in unfavourable conditions such as drought or during winter months. 

• These generally form near the surface of the soil. 

• They have several nodes known as eyes that develop into new plants. Also, stem tubers produce chlorophyll when they are exposed to sunlight.  

What is a Tuber?

Let’s know the tubers meaning. 

• Tuber, is known as specialized storage stems of certain seed plants. 

• Tubers are usually short and thickened, they typically grow below the soil.

• They are primarily made up of starch-storing parenchyma tissue, and they serve as the resting stage for many plants, allowing them to overwinter.

• As modified stems, we can say most tubers bear minute scale leaves. Each of these leaves has a bud and each of them has the potential for developing into a new plant. 

Difference Between Bulbs and Tubers

• The term "bulb" refers to any plant that has a fleshy underground nutrient storage structure.

• Let’s know how tubers differ from bulbs. We can define a bulb as a resting stage of a plant that is usually formed underground. A bulb is a fleshy structure that resembles a bulb in appearance, consisting of a short stem base bearing one or more buds, enclosed in overlapping membranous or fleshy leaves, and it is a fleshy structure such as a tuber or corn.

• In addition, a tuber is defined as a small fleshy usually underground stem bearing minute scale leaves, each of which bears a bud in its axial and is possibly capable of producing a new plant. It is also defined as a fleshy root or rhizome which resembles a tuber.

• Tubers are swollen underground stems or rhizomes that normally lie horizontally or run latitudinally.

• Tubers are swollen underground stems or rhizomes that normally lie horizontally or run latitudinally.

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Tuber crops are an important source of animal feed and a significant part of the world's food supply. Globally, 45 percent of tuber crop production is consumed as food, with the rest going to animal feed or industrial processing for items like starch and distilled spirits.

Tuber Plants

Examples of Stem Tubers

Stem Tuber Examples

Stem tubers basically develop into thickened rhizomes (underground stems) or stolons (horizontal connections between organisms). Potato and yam are two common plant species with stem tubers. Some sources include modified lateral roots (root tubers) in the definition; these are found in sweet potato, cassava, and dahlia.

Here are a few tuber plants examples

Stem Tuber of Potato

Potatoes are tubers with stems. Stolons thicken as they grow in size and develop into storage organs. The tuber contains all of the components of a typical stem, including nodes and internodes. The base of the shoot close to the tuber produces adventitious roots and lateral buds on the shoot as the main shoot develops from the tuber.

The tuber contains all of the components of a typical stem, including nodes and internodes. The nodes are said to be the eyes as well as each has a leaf scar. The nodes or eyes are arranged in a spiral around the tuber, beginning at the opposite end of the tuber from the attachment point to the stolon. The terminal bud develops at the furthest point away from the stolon attachment and tubers, exhibiting the same apical dominance as a normal stem. A tuber is internally filled with starch, which is stored in enlarged parenchyma-like cells. A tuber's interior contains the typical cell structures of any stem, such as pith, vascular zones, and a cortex.

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How Tubers Differ from Bulbs and Tuberous Roots?

It would certainly be simple if we could simply conclude that if it resembles an onion, it is a bulb, and if it resembles a potato, it is a tuber. Sweet potatoes, however, complicate matters even more because they, like dahlias, have tuberous roots.

While the terms "tuber" and "tuberous roots" are frequently used interchangeably, they do differ slightly. Tuberous roots are usually propagated through division, as opposed to tubers, which can be cut up to make new plants. Many tuber plants have short lives, which is fine because we usually grow them only to harvest the fleshy edible tubers.

Tuberous roots typically form in clusters and can grow vertically beneath the soil surface. Plants with tuberous roots can live for a long time and are mostly grown as ornamentals. As previously stated, they can usually be divided once or twice a year to produce more plants.

What Makes a Tuber a Tuber?

Unlike corms or bulbs, tubers are known not to have a basal plant from which new shoots or from which roots grow. Tubers produce nodes as well as buds which are also known as “eyes” all over their surface, which grow up through the soil surface as shoots and stems, or deep into the soil as roots. Many popular tubers, such as potatoes, are grown as food due to their high nutrient content. Tubers can be cut up into many different pieces, with each piece bearing at least two nodes, also they can be planted individually to create new plants that will be exact replicas of the parent plant. \New tubers may form from the tubers' roots as well as stems as they mature.

Some common plants with tubers include: 

• Potato 

• Caladium 

• Cyclamen 

• Anemone 

• Cassava 

• Yuca 

• Jerusalem artichoke 

• Tuberous begonias