bulb

bulb, in botany, a modified stem that is the resting stage of certain seed plants, particularly perennial monocotyledons. A bulb consists of a relatively large, usually globe-shaped, underground bud with membraneous or fleshy overlapping leaves arising from a short stem. A bulb’s fleshy leaves—which in some species are actually expanded leaf bases—function as food reserves that enable a plant to lie dormant when water is unavailable (during winter or drought) and resume its active growth when favourable conditions again prevail.

There are two main types of bulbs. One type, typified by the onion, has a thin papery covering protecting its fleshy leaves. The other type, the scaly bulb, as seen in true lilies, has naked storage leaves, unprotected by any papery covering, that make the bulb appear to consist of a series of angular scales. Bulbs can vary in size from insignificant pea-sized structures to those of large crinum lilies (Crinum species), the individual bulbs of which may weigh more than 7 kg (15 pounds).

Bulbs enable many common garden ornamentals, such as the narcissus, tulip, and hyacinth, to produce their flowers rapidly, almost precociously, in early spring when growing conditions are favourable. Other bulb-producing plants, such as the lilies, flower in the summer, while a few, such as the meadow saffron, bloom in the fall. Bulb-producing species are especially abundant in the lily (Liliaceae) and amaryllis (Amaryllidaceae) families. A few bulb-producing species are of economic importance to humans because of the taste and nutritive value of their fleshy leaves; included among such species are the onion and its relatives the shallot, garlic, and leek. Other bulbs contain poisonous compounds—such as the red squill (Drimia), the bulbs of which are the source of a highly effective rat poison.

In horticulture the term bulb is incorrectly applied to a number of botanical structures that have a similar food-storing function. Among these are the solid corms of the crocus and gladiolus and the elongated rhizome of some irises.