Bulbs, Corms, Tubers, Rhizomes

Front 1

Agapanthus species and hybrids

Back 1

African lily; lily of the Nile (rhizome)

Hint 1

The plants produce dense tufts of rich to deep green or greyish-green, leathery, and strap-like leaves with blunt or pointed tips, varying in length and width that range from 20-80 cm (8-31 ins) long and 2-5 cm (0.75-2 ins) wide. These basal leaves that can be arching or sub-erect and distichously arranged, grow on very short stems that arise from thickened and fleshy rhizomatous roots. It produces erect stems (scapes) that can reach 60-90 cm (2-3 ft) tall, towering over the attractive foliage and bearing showy umbels of tubular or bell-shaped flowers, in varying shades of blue to purple or white. Globular or pendulous flower heads can be small or as large as 20 cm (8 ins) or more, blooming over a long season in the tropics or from late spring to early autumn in frost-free climates, depending on the species. Flowers will eventually develop into seedpods containing winged black seeds.It produces rounded clusters (umbels) of funnel-shaped flowers atop stiff, upright, leafless, fleshy stalks (scapes) rising above a dense mound of basal narrow, strap-shaped, linear, grass-like leaves. Blooms in summer. Hybrids come in a variety of colors (dark purples to blues to whites) and in sizes ranging from dwarf plants (18" tall) to large cultivars (to 4' tall). Leaves may be evergreen or deciduous. Leaves of some cultivars are variegated. Foliage mounds are generally attractive when plants are not in bloom.

Front 2

Allium species and hybrids

Back 2

allium; ornamental onion (bulb)

Hint 2

They can vary in height between 5 cm and 150 cm. The flowers form an umbel at the top of a leafless stalk. The bulbs vary in size between species, from very small (around 2–3 mm in diameter) to rather large (8–10 cm). Some species (such as Welsh onion, A. fistulosum) develop thickened leaf-bases rather than forming bulbs as such. Allium is a genus of perennial bulbous plants that produce chemical compounds (mostly cysteine sulfoxide) that give them a characteristic onion or garlic taste and odor. Many are used as food plants, though not all members of the genus are equally flavorful. In most cases, both bulb and leaves are edible. Their taste may be strong or weak, depending on the species and on ground sulphur (usually as sulfate) content (in the rare occurrence of sulphur-free growth conditions, all Allium species will lack their usual pungency altogether).

Front 3

Canna xgeneralis

Back 3

canna; canna lily (rhizome)

Hint 3

Cannas are large tropical plants that produce gladiolus-like flower spikes in summer atop erect stems sheathed in large paddle-shaped leaves. Plants sold in commerce are mostly hybrids ranging from 1.5' tall dwarfs to 8' tall giants. Flower colors typically include red, orange, pink, yellow, cream and some bicolors. Foliage colors include shades of green, bronze and striped/variegated. Dramatic foliage provides considerable ornamental interest when plants are not in flower.

Front 4

Convallaria majalis

Back 4

lily-of-the-valley (rhizome)

Hint 4

Lily of the valley has very dainty white, bell-shaped flowers which are very sweet smelling and bloom in early spring.

Front 5

Crocus species and hybrids

Back 5

crocus (corm)

Hint 5

The cup-shaped, solitary, salverform flowers taper off into a narrow tube. Their color varies enormously, although lilac, mauve, yellow and white are predominant. The grass-like, ensiform leaf[5] shows generally a white central stripe along the leaf axis. The leaf margin is entire. Crocuses typically have three stamens. The spice saffron is obtained from the stigmas of Crocus sativus, an autumn/fall-blooming species.

Front 6

Dahlia x hortensis

Back 6

dahlia; garden dahlia (tuber)

Hint 6

Perennial herb to 2m. STEM hollow. ROOT ~tuberous. LEAVES opposite, to 30cm; usually divided into 3-7 lateral leaflets, sometimes divided once more; LEAFLETS oval, to 8cm, with teeth. FLOWER terminal, showy, often nodding; central florets yellow; edge florets large, red, orange, yellow, purple or white.

Front 7

Hyacinthus orientalis

Back 7

common hyacinth (bulb)

Hint 7

Hyacinth, Dutch hyacinth or garden hyacinth is a spring flowering bulb that produces spikes of flowers noted for their intense, often overpowering, fragrance. Typically grows 6-10” tall. Each bulb sends up 3-4 strap-shaped green leaves in early spring and a stiff densely flowered spike of extremely fragrant tubular flowers. A very large number of hybrid cultivars are available in commerce under this species name in flower colors including various shades of blue, purple, pink, red and white

Front 8

Iris hybrids

Back 8

bearded iris; hybrid iris (rhizome)

Hint 8

Irises are perennial plants, growing from creeping rhizomes (rhizomatous irises) or, in drier climates, from bulbs (bulbous irises). They have long, erect flowering stems which may be simple or branched, solid or hollow, and flattened or have a circular cross-section. The rhizomatous species usually have 3–10 basal sword-shaped leaves growing in dense clumps. The bulbous species have cylindrical, basal leaves.
[edit]Flower

The inflorescences are fan-shaped and contain one or more symmetrical six-lobed flowers. These grow on a pedicel or lack a footstalk. The three sepals, which are spreading or droop downwards, are referred to as "falls". They expand from their narrow base, which in some of the rhizomatous irises has a "beard" (a tuft of short upright extensions growing in its midline), into a broader expanded portion ("limb"), often adorned with veining, lines or dots. The three, sometimes reduced, petals stand upright, partly behind the sepal bases. They are called "standards". Some smaller iris species have all six lobes pointing straight outwards, but generally limb and standards differ markedly in appearance. They are united at their base into a floral tube that lies above the ovary (known as an epigynous or inferior ovary). The styles divide towards the apex into petaloid branches; this is significant in pollination.

Front 9

Iris sibirica

Back 9

Siberian iris (rhizome)

Hint 9

narrow and fairly rigid, blade-shaped, 40-80 cm long and 2-4 cm broad. The flowers are typical of an iris, borne in late spring or early summer on unbranched or sparsely-branched stems held above the leaves, each flower 4-7 cm diameter, mid- to purple-blue, often with a paler whitish or yellowish centre.

Front 10

Lilium species and hybrids

Back 10

lily (bulb)

Hint 10

perennial bulbs that grow from 1 to 8' tall and typically feature 6-tepaled flowers in a variety of shapes (trumpet, funnel, cup, bell, bowl or flat), sometimes nodding, sometimes with reflexed petals, atop stiff, unbranched stems clothed with linear to elliptic leaves. Flowers are often fragrant and come in a broad range of colors except blue. For classification purposes, the Royal Horticultural Society and North American Lily Society have organized hybrid lilies into eight (8) divisions based primarily upon parentage, habit and flower type

Front 11

Muscari armeniacum

Back 11

grape hyacinth (bulb)

Hint 11

Native to southeastern Europe, this species of grape hyacinth is a perennial bulb that features conical racemes of slightly fragrant, tightly packed, deep violet blue, urn-shaped flowers atop scapes rising to 8” tall in early spring. Each bulb produces 1-3 scapes with 20-40 flowers per scape. Each flower has a thin white line around the rim. Dense inflorescence purportedly resembles an elongated, upside-down bunch of grapes, hence the common name. Scapes rise up from somewhat floppy clumps of narrow, fleshy, basal, green leaves (to 12” long) that appear in autumn and live through the cold St. Louis winter to spring when the plants flower.

Front 12

Narcissus species and hybrids

Back 12

narcissus; daffodil; jonquil (bulb)

Hint 12

All Narcissus species have a central bell-, bowl-, or disc-shaped corona surrounded by a ring of six floral leaves called the perianth which is united into a tube at the forward edge of the 3-locular ovary. The seeds are black, round and swollen with a hard coat. The three outer segments are sepals, and the three inner segments are petals. Though the traditional daffodil of folklore, poetry, and field may have a yellow to golden-yellow color all over, both in the wild species and due to breeding, the perianth and corona may be variously colored. Breeders have developed some daffodils with double, triple, or ambiguously multiple rows and layers of segments, and several wild species also have known double variants.
[edit]

Front 13

Tulipa species and hybrids

Back 13

tulip (bulb)

Hint 13

Tulips are spring-blooming perennials that grow from bulbs. Depending on the species, tulip plants can grow as short as 4 inches (10 cm) or as high as 28 inches (71 cm). The tulip's large flowers usually bloom on scapes or subscapose[further explanation needed] stems that lack bracts. Most tulips produce only one flower per stem, but a few species bear multiple flowers on their scapes (e.g. Tulipa turkestanica). The showy, generally cup or star-shaped tulip flower has three petals and three sepals, which are often termed tepals because they are nearly identical. These six tepals are often marked on the interior surface near the bases with darker colorings. Tulip flowers come in a wide variety of colors, except pure blue (several tulips with "blue" in the name have a faint violet hue).[4][5]


Tip of a tulip stamen. Note the grains of pollen
The flowers have six distinct, basifixed stamens with filaments shorter than the tepals. Each stigma of the flower has three distinct lobes, and the ovaries are superior, with three chambers.[further explanation needed] The tulip's fruit is a capsule with a leathery covering and an ellipsoid to subglobose shape.[further explanation needed] Each capsule contains numerous flat, disc-shaped seeds in two rows per chamber.[6] These light to dark brown seeds have very thin seed coats and endosperm that does not normally fill the entire seed.[7]
Tulip stems have few leaves, with larger species tending to have multiple leaves. Plants typically have 2 to 6 leaves, with some species having up to 12. The tulip's leaf is strap-shaped, with a waxy coating, and leaves are alternately arranged on the stem; these fleshy blades are often bluish green in color.