A horizontal underground stem that produces shoots above ground and roots below. Rhizomes serve as storage organs and allow plants to spread vegetatively across an area.
From Greek 'rhizoma' meaning mass of roots, though ironically rhizomes are stems, not roots. The term was adopted in the 19th century as botanists distinguished between true roots and these specialized underground stems.
Rhizomes are like plant internet cables - they connect individual shoots into one massive underground network! Some grass rhizomes can spread for miles, making what looks like a meadow of separate plants actually one giant interconnected organism.
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