In botany, a bulb is a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf bases that function as food storage organs during dormancy. (In gardening, plants with other kinds of storage organ are also called "ornamental bulbous plants" or just "bulbs".)

A bulb's leaf bases, also known as scales, generally do not support leaves, but contain food reserves to enable the plant to survive adverse weather conditions. At the center of the bulb is a vegetative growing point or an unexpanded flowering shoot. The base is formed by a stem, and plant growth occurs from this basal plate. Roots emerge from the underside of the base, and new stems and leaves from the upper side. Tunicate bulbs have dry, membranous outer scales that protect the continuous lamina of fleshy scales. Species in the genera Allium, Hippeastrum, Narcissus, and Tulipa all have tunicate bulbs. Non-tunicate bulbs, such as Lilium and Fritillaria species, lack the protective tunic and have looser scales.

Other types of storage organs (such as corms, rhizomes, and tubers) are sometimes referred to as bulbs, although as the term is used in botany, they are not. The technical term for plants that form underground storage organs, including bulbs as well as tubers and corms, is geophyte. Some epiphytic orchids (family Orchidaceae) form above-ground storage organs called pseudobulbs, that superficially resemble bulbs.

"Bulbs" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and included on his 1974 album, Veedon Fleece. It was chosen as the 'A' side single from the album.

Recording and composition

"Bulbs" was first recorded with different lyrics at the recording session for the 1973 album, Hard Nose the Highway released in 1973.'. After the first recording session for Veedon Fleece, "Bulbs" was recut in New York City at Mercury Studios in March 1974, along with "Cul de Sac" to give it a more rock feeling. According to Jef Labes this was "cause he (Morrison) didn't feel they had the right feeling...It was me, Van and a bunch of other guys that he'd never played with." Bass player Joe Macho had previously played on the 1966 Bobby Hebb hit song "Sunny".

"Bulbs" has been described as "a pleasant, catchy country ditty, a Dire Straits song before its time" by biographer, John Collis. As with many of Morrison's songs, "Bulbs" does not have a clear story line but in part focuses on immigration to America as in the lines:

Experiments in Living is the debut album of Four Day Hombre, and was released on March 13th, 2006. It is available on CD only (catalogue number ALM CDA001). The title of the album is inspired by the book Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living 1900-1939, by Virginia Nicholson.

Track listing

References