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being replaced by a new corm or corms that form on top of the old one but sometimes beneath or alongside it.
A corm is a shortened, fleshy, erect underground stem with inconspicuous scale-like leaves. It closely resembles, and is often mistakenly identified as, a bulb (as the "bulbs" of Gladiolus and Crocus), but actually it is distinguished by being more definitely a modified stem.
The stem character of bulbs is obscured by their very fleshy leaves. From the prominent terminal bud and smaller ones in the axils of its scale-like leaves, corms develop new plants, and often small, subsidiary corms known as cormels. Gladioulus, Freesia, Tritonia and Caladium all grow from corms.
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Gladiolus Corm
Freesia Corm

Source: PlantFacts, Ohio State University
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