Fuchsia decidua is an oddity which I saw years ago in the Sierra de Minatlan in western Jalisco. It has a few long, thick, spongy roots, not defined into potato-like tubers, but still tuberous. The thick roots are buried in moss high up on the trunks of oaks. The very colorful flowers mimic the local mistletoes. A tuberous plant but an epiphyte rather than a geophyte. There are several epiphytic bulbs, so this shouldn't be too far off topic. Fred ----- Original Message ----- From: <totototo@telus.net> To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Friday, July 07, 2006 10:05 AM Subject: [pbs] What's a Bulb?, was Re: chocolate scented bulbs > On 7 Jul 06, at 14:31, Jacinda and Barry wrote: > > > Good question re: orchids and what counts as bulbs and what doesn't. > > Have always wondered this myself! > > The terms "bulb", "tuber", "rhizome", and "corm" have rather precise > definitions in botanical use, which you can unearth in any suitable > reference. > > Some plants are, as you would expect, problematic: various cyclamen > species have roots on different faces of their whatevers so the genus > as a whole presents a problem when it comes to classifying their > storage organs. > > And many plants have fleshy roots that are none of these: peonies, > for example. > > The storage organs of some orchids are regularly referred to as > "tubers", e.g. /Orchis/, but others are less certain. The "bulbs" of > /Pleione/ are commonly referred to as "pseudobulbs". > > So in spite of nomenclatural precision by the botanists, there are, > as usual, gray areas and unclassifiable structures to keep us all > amused and alert. > > > > -- > Rodger Whitlock > Victoria, British Columbia, Canada > Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate > > on beautiful Vancouver Island > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > >