I got to thinking the other day that the primary reason for the lack of spring crocuses, hyacinths, daffodils, tulips, irises, lilies, gladiolus and others is the failure to plant bulbs during the previous fall. Yesterday, which by the time you are reading this could have been anytime, CVPS sent a contractor to replace some of the power-sucking incandescent lighting devices that guide me in the dark. He screwed in a variety of oddly shaped tubes and ballasts that would free up several watts of expensive Canadian hydro power. As I watched the contractor work, I could feel the bulbar region just north of my brain stem spring into action. Like the various designs of electric bulbs, that which we call bulbs are actually various versions thereof.
True bulbs have food-storing scales.
You probably have some in your kitchen in the form of onions or garlic. While both flower, daffodils, lilies, hyacinths and tulips are true bulbs, and the flowers are prettier. Looking a lot like true bulbs with a thin outer skin called a tunic are the corms. Unlike bulbs, corms are solid with a bud on top that will produce the leaves and flowers we call crocuses and gladioli among others. While not particularly noted for their flowers, the Irish, Maine and Idaho potatoes are tubers.