inside, but a true bulb cut in half reveals that it is made up of layers. Corms are structurally plant stems, with nodes and internodes with buds and produce adventitious roots. On the top of the corm, one or a few buds grow into shoots that produce normal leaves and flowers. Cormels Corms can form many small cormlets called cormels, from the basal areas of the new growing corms, especially when the main growing point is damaged. These propagate corm-forming plants. A number of species replace corms every year by growing a new corm. This process starts after the shoot develops fully expanded leaves. The new corm forms at the shoot base just above the old corm. As the new corm grows, short stolons appear that end with the newly growing small cormels. As the plants grow and flower, they use up the old corm, which shrivels away. The new corm that replaces the old corm grows in size, especially after flowering ends. The old corm produces the greatest number of cormels when close to the soil surface. Small cormels normally take one or two more years of growth before they are large enough to flower. Cormels do have a reproductive function, but in the wild they also are important as a survival strategy. In most places where geophytes are common, so are animals that feed on them, whether from above like pigs, or from below like bulb weevils, mole rats, or pocket gophers. Such animals eat through protective tunics, but they generally miss several cormels that remain in the soil to replace the consumed plant. Plants such as Homeria, Watsonia and Gladiolus, genera that are vulnerable to such animals, are probably the ones that produce cormels in the greatest numbers and most widely distributed over the plant. Homeria species produce bunches of cormels on underground stem nodes, and Watsonia meriana for example actually produces cormels profusely from under bracts on the inflorescences. Those growing from the bottom of the corm are normal fibrous roots formed as the shoots grow, and are produced from the basal area at the bottom of the corm. The second type are thicker layered roots called contractile roots that form as the new corms are growing. They pull the corm deeper into the soil. In some species contractile roots are produced in response to fluctuating soil temperatures and light levels. In such species, once the