General Knowledge - Biology - Discussion

Potato are stem tubers. Enlarged stolons thicken to develop into storage organs. The tuber has all the parts of a normal stem, including nodes and inter nodes. The nodes are the eyes and each has a leaf scar. The nodes or eyes are arranged around the tuber in a spiral fashion beginning on the end opposite the attachment point to the stolon.

The terminal bud is produced at the farthest point away from the stolon attachment and tubers thus show the same apical dominance as a normal stem. Internally, a tuber is filled with starch stored in enlarged parenchyma like cells. The inside of a tuber has the typical cell structures of any stem, including a pith, vascular zones, and a cortex.

1. The stem is normally divided into nodes and inter nodes.
2. Lateral buds and leaves grow out of stem at intervals called nodes.
3. The intervals on the stem between the nodes are called internodes.
4. The number of leaves that appear only at a node depends on the species of plant.

Potatoes are occasionally referred to as a root crop because we eat a part of the plant that grows underground. However, the part of the potato that is eaten is not a root, it is actually a specialized stem called a tuber.

Whereas the sweet potato is different. It is modified root.

It is a stem vegetable. The potatoes grow on underground stems, called stolons. You can know potato tubers are actually thickened stems because they have buds that sprout stems and leaves. Roots don't do that.

Potato is an example for underground modification of stem. It develops by the swelling of the tip of stolon (slender lateral branch from the base of the stem). It stores large amount of food, mainly starch.

Potato is an example for stem tuber. It is a kind of stem modification in which lower part of the stem grows into soil. The apices of these underground branches stores food materials and becomes tuberous.

Yes, potatoes though they stored food it has nodes and inter nodes which are the characteristics of stems so potato included under stem some stems also store food e. G ginger also stem but it store food.

How can a potato be a shoot it grows opposite to gravity (negative geotropic) which is a feature of roots only?

Please explain me...

No the answer is correct. Potatoes are stems as they even have nodes and Internodes. And foolishly even grows underground.

First, there are two types of potatoes.

Irish potatoes which are stem tuber and sweet potatoes which it is root tuber.