Question

Differentiate between bulb and tuber.

Answer 1

Hint:A tuber or stem tuber is considered the thickened section of an underground stem that is used to store food. They have buds that the new plant grows out of. E.g.: with potatoes. The tuberous root is a thick root, modified as a storage organ with one end of the root helping to maximize shooting and the other to shoot growth and the other end contributes to root growth. E.g.: dahlia (sweet potato), carrot, etc.

Complete answer: The bulb is a term which is given to plants with fleshy underground storage systems, but only those plants generally referred to as bulbs are genuine bulbs. Tubers are bulbs too but not real bulbs by this description. In appearance and in how they grow, there's a true bulb and tuber. Their role is to store food and energy to improve the survival of plants during the winter or dry months.

Bulb	Tuber
There is only one bulb.	These are present in numbers.
The complex of a compact shoot.	The end of the stolon is bloated.
The stem is weakened and discoid.	The trunk is widened.
Food is contained in the scales, bases of the leaf, and palm.	The food on the stem is processed.
It helps for storage purposes.	It helps in the growth of new plants.
An onion bulb	A potato tuber

Note: Bear in mind that bulbs and tubers are not the same. A bulb is called a fleshy underground storage organ. Just a handful of plants have actual bulbs. Tubers are bulbs, by definition, but they vary in their appearance and mode of growth, although both serve the same function as food storage.