Hey guys!
In this week's episode of Brilliant Botany, I'm going to tell you about some of the record-breaking
and mindblowing root systems you can find in the plant world.
Roots serve a lot of purposes for plants.
They hold them in place, collect water and take in nutrients.
Generally speaking, there are two types of root systems: taproots and fibrous root systems.
Taproots are thicker and deep reaching roots.
The fibrous root system is made up of thinner roots that grow closer to the soil surface.
Water is one the most important things a plant needs, and it's the roots' job to find it.
Because of this, plants in dry climates, or areas where water is hard to get, will have
the longest roots.
American Beach Grass, a coastal North American plant, is recorded as having roots as deep
as 40 feet.
This allows them to reach the water table, since the sand they grow in doesn't hold water.
That, however, is nothing compared to some of the record-breaking roots out there.
Boscia albitrunca, or Shepherd's Tree, is an African plant with recorded root depths
of 68 meters.
That's almost 225 feet.
The tree itself is typically under 10 meters tall, but needs all of those roots to find
water in its dry habitat.
Roots, of course, also give a plant stability.
In my Five Botany Facts video I mentioned coastal redwoods, which are found on the Northwestern
coast of the US and can grow as tall as 350 feet or more.
You'd think a mammoth plant like that would need a deep tap root to hold them up, but
these monsters of the plant world only have fibrous root systems,
That's right, these trees that can have a volume of up to 42,000 cubic feet are held
up by a dense layer of thin roots that sit sclose to the soil surface.
For this reason, redwoods rely heavily on their neighbors, because their root systems
interlock and hold up the stand of trees as a whole.
There are also some specialized root systems out there, like the aerial roots in mangrove
trees.
Mangroves grow in subtidal areas in the tropics, meaning that they have to survive being partially
submerged in brackish or salt water when the tide is high.
These roots grow out of the trunk above ground and bring in oxygen that the submerged roots
can't access.
Those are just a few of the amazing roots you can find out in the plant world.
There are lots of specialized root systems out there, and roots are more important than
we often give them credit for.
Many plants can grow back from just a root system, including coastal redwoods.
If you know of any really cool root systems, please tell me about them in the comments!
Thank you for watching!
Last week I talked about why I became a scientist, and if there's something you'd like me to
talk about next week, let me know in the comments.
For daily posts about plant science you can check out www.brilliantbotany.com.
I'll see you all next time.