Root
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The roots of a plant is the part that is buried in the soil.
Plants need their roots especially for three reasons: The roots take water and nutrients, a sort of food, from the soil. They also often store this food. And they fix the plants to the ground.
There are two sorts of root systems:
- the taproot system: there is one very big root that goes down into the ground, and many smaller roots that come out of it
- the diffuse root system: there are many roots that go in all directions
Some roots go very deep into the ground. One root that was found in Arizona, USA, was 60 m below the surface.
Roots are also very strong. Some tree roots can destroy stones.