In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a modified subterranean stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes.
Rhizome is a philosophical concept developed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. It is what Deleuze calls an "image of thought", based on the botanical rhizome, that apprehends multiplicities - wikipedia 
Deleuze and Guattari use the terms "rhizome" and "rhizomatic" to describe theory and research that allows for multiple, non-hierarchical entry and exit points in data representation and interpretation.
If a rhizome is separated into pieces, each piece may be able to give rise to a new plant. The plant uses the rhizome to store Starches, proteins, and other nutrients.
These nutrients become useful for the plant when new shoots must be formed or when the plant dies back for the winter.
This is a process known as Vegetative Reproduction and is used by farmers and gardeners to propagate certain plants.
This also allows for lateral spread of grasses like bamboo and bunch grasses. Examples of plants that are propagated this way include hops, asparagus, ginger, irises, Lily of the Valley, Cannas, and sympodial orchids. Some rhizomes are used directly in cooking, including ginger, turmeric, galangal, and fingerroot.
rhizomes.net
A rhizome, on the other hand, is characterized by 'ceaselessly established connections between semiotic chains, organizations of power, and circumstances relative to the arts, sciences, and social struggles - rhizomes.net
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