Corm definition

kôrm
corms
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A short, vertical, swollen underground stem of a plant (usually one of the monocots) that serves as a storage organ to enable the plant to survive winter or other adverse conditions such as drought.
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A short thick solid food-storing underground stem, sometimes bearing papery scale leaves, as in the crocus or gladiolus.
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A fleshy, thickened, vertical, underground stem, usually having annual segments with a bud at the tip, thin external scale leaves, and roots at the base, as in the gladiolus: corms differ from bulbs in having much more stem tissue and fewer scale leaves.
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A fleshy underground stem that is similar to a bulb but stores its food as stem tissue and has fewer and thinner leaflike scales. The crocus and gladiolus produce new shoots from corms.
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Other Word Forms

Noun

Singular:
corm
Plural:
corms

Origin of corm

  • New Latin cormus from Greek kormos a trimmed tree trunk sker-1 in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From French corme, from Latin cormus, from Ancient Greek κορμοσ (kormos, “trunk stripped of its boughs”)

    From Wiktionary

Corm Sentence Examples

  • Propagation is by the formation of new corms from the parent corm, and by seeds.

  • The plants have a rhizome or corm, and the fruit is a capsule.

  • When you try to pull it out, its just snaps off at the stem leaving the corm in the ground.

  • A new corm develops at the base of the new shoot.

  • The British Pharmacopoeia contains (i) an extract of the fresh corm, having doses of 4 to i grain, and (2) the Vinum Colchici, made by treating the dried corm with sherry and given in doses of 10 to 30 minims. This latter is the preparation still most generally used, though the presence of veratrine both in the corm and the seeds renders the use of colchicine itself theoretically preferable.

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