Question

Suppose a plant has tuberous roots and rhizomes both as underground structures. How can you distinguish a root from rhizome?

• A. Roots have no scale leaves and nodes and internodes.
• B. Root is thicker and rhizome is thinner.
• C. Root remains non-green and rhizome becomes green on exposure to sunlight.
• D. Root bear root hairs and rhizome does not bear any hairs

Answer 1

Answer: (A)

Stem modification occurs to perform many functions, like, potato tubers, corms in colocasia, rhizome in ginger and turmeric plant. These are underground stem modification that store food.
The presence of nodes and internodes are features of the stem, and leaves arise from the node region of the stem, the rhizome is a modified stem that has nodes, internodes, and scale leaves, e.g., ginger, turmeric.
The root is the part of the plant, which helps in water and mineral absorption, but it also performs so many specific functions after modification. Modification of root occurs to perform functions like mechanical support, help in respiration, nitrogen fixation, reproduction by asexual method, and storage of food.
The tuberous root is a modified root that stores food, Four o'clock plants show this type of modification but do not shows the leaves, nodes and internodes.