Not a potato. It is a cool post-post-structuralist idea created by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari.
There's no point planting rhizomes in your garden, because they only grow out of an eternally deferred centre, maybe.
by Septimus Warren Smith September 25, 2010
Get the rhizome mug.A horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes. Students of Naropa University are obsessed with the rhizome, as it fulfills their dual lust for metaphor and salad.
"Rhizome, an underground stem bearing roots and flowers, and a postructuralist metaphor for nomadic traits, is a trope that Anne Waldman exploits to describe hybrid, cross-genre poetics and intuitive constellations." It also makes a decent tea.
by Dusty Cioffi May 6, 2008
Get the rhizome mug.A concept by the philosopher Gilles Deleuze delineating nihilism as an enclosed (disymmetric) boundary (space) separating subjectivity and objectivity.
The image-thought of the boundary of the human body as coterminous with the boundary of nihilism.
In phenomenological terms Deleuze's paradigm of body-without-organs: connection as coterminity (contiguity).
The image-thought of the boundary of the human body as coterminous with the boundary of nihilism.
In phenomenological terms Deleuze's paradigm of body-without-organs: connection as coterminity (contiguity).
Deleuze's rhizome indicates that the body is the phenomenal instance of disymmetry.
In doing so it indicates that coterminity (boundary) connects phenomena (idea) with phenomenology (imagic idea).
In doing so it indicates that coterminity (boundary) connects phenomena (idea) with phenomenology (imagic idea).
by metawave February 19, 2019
Get the rhizome mug.A model of scientific knowledge inspired by Deleuze and Guattari: knowledge as a rhizome—a sprawling, horizontal network with no center, no hierarchy, no single root. Unlike tree-like knowledge that branches from fundamental principles downward, rhizomatic science connects in any direction: neuroscience links to phenomenology links to Buddhist meditation links to computational modeling. Connections are made where useful, not where dictated by disciplinary hierarchy. The rhizome grows in all directions, with no beginning or end, just ongoing connection and transformation. It's science that refuses to stay in its lane.
"Your department is organized by disciplines with clear boundaries. But my research on consciousness connects neurology, philosophy, meditation practice, and AI. It's a Scientific Rhizome—it doesn't fit your tree, and it's not supposed to. Deal with it."
by Abzugal February 23, 2026
Get the Scientific Rhizome mug.A model of knowledge inspired by Deleuze and Guattari: knowledge as a rhizome—a sprawling, horizontal network with no center, no hierarchy, no single root. Unlike tree-like knowledge that branches from foundational principles downward, rhizomatic knowing connects in any direction: personal experience links to academic theory links to cultural tradition links to embodied intuition. Connections are made where useful, not where epistemologically sanctioned. The rhizome grows in all directions, with no beginning or end, just ongoing connection and transformation. It's knowledge that refuses to stay in its lane.
"Your epistemology is a tree: foundational principles, clear branches, hierarchical structure. My knowing is a rhizome: connecting therapy, poetry, grandmother stories, and statistical data in whatever way helps me understand. Epistemological Rhizome: it's not chaos—it's just not your order."
by Abzugal February 23, 2026
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