bulbArticle Free Pass bulb, in botany, structure that is the
resting stage of certain seed plants, particularly perennial
monocotyledons. A bulb consists of a relatively large, usually
globe-shaped, underground bud with membraneous or fleshy
overlapping leaves arising from a short stem. A bulb’s fleshy
leaves—which in some species are actually expanded leaf
bases—function as food reserves that enable a plant to lie
dormant when water is unavailable (during winter or drought) and
resume its active growth when favourable conditions again
prevail. An onion is a commonly known bulb. There are two main
types of bulbs. One type, typified by the onion, has a thin
papery covering protecting its fleshy leaves. The other type,
the scaly bulb, as seen in true lilies, has naked storage
leaves, unprotected by any papery covering, that make the bulb
appear to consist of a series of angular scales. Bulbs can vary
in size from insignificant pea-sized structures to those of
large crinums (crinum lilies), the individual bulbs