Question

Potato tubers are modified stem as they bear:
(a) Axillary buds
(b) Taproots
(c) Fibrous root
(d) Leaves at nodes

Answer 1

It is a stem in which it has many nodes called eyes with spaces between eyes known as internodes. The potato tubers can form at the end of swollen underground stem structures, rhizomes. The eyes of potatoes are really axillary buds that contain several types of small buds at each site. These buds can be expanding to form shoots that grow on to make whole plants.

Complete answer:
The potato tubers are modified stems. They bear nodes, internodes, and axillary buds. The eyes of a potato are actually axillary buds that can develop to form shoots. Potato is a stem vegetable. The potatoes grow on the underground stem. The potato tubers have thickened stems; they have buds that sprout stem and leaves. Roots can’t do that. And the potatoes have occurred under the ground so they are called the underground stem. Examples of underground stem vegetables are onion, ginger, carrot, sweet potato, etc. in which the stems function as the store tissue for food and nutrients and survival from one growing season to another.

Additional Information: Some underground modified stems are:
1. Rhizome:
It is a fleshy, non-green underground stem. It has distinct nodes and internodes. The nodes can bear dry scale leaves with axillary buds.
2. Bulb
It is a highly condensed spherical stem and its upper surface, a terminal bud, and many fleshy scale leaves are present. A cluster of adventitious roots arises from the base of the bulb.
3. Corm
It is a condensed form of rhizome growing in a vertical direction. It is more or less rounded with a flattened base. The corm has distinct circular nodes and internodes.
4. Tuber
The stem tuber is a swollen tip of an underground lateral Stem. It is covered by a corry skin with a number of small depressions called eyes’.

So, the correct answer is ‘Axillary buds’.

Note: Tubers are usually short and thickened and typically grow below the soil. Largely it is composed of starch-storing parenchyma tissue, and they constitute the resting stage of various plants and enable overwintering in many species. Most tubers bear minute scale leaves as modified stems, each with a bud that has the potential for developing into a new plant.