A fibrous root system (sometimes also called adventitious root system) is the opposite of a taproot system. It is usually formed by thin, moderately branching roots growing from the stem. A fibrous root system is universal in monocotyledonous plants and ferns.
Most trees begin life with a taproot, but after one to a few years change to a wide-spreading fibrous root system with mainly horizontal surface roots and only a few vertical, deep anchoring roots. A typical mature tree 30-50 m tall has a root system that extends horizontally in all directions as far as the tree is tall or more, but well over 95% of the roots are in the top 50 cm depth of soil.
A few plants with fibrous root systems:
- Coconut palm
- Gabrielle
- Pteridophyta
- White clover (Trifolium repens)
- Marigold
Famous quotes containing the words fibrous root, fibrous, root and/or system:
“She saw the couches of the dead, and where the fibrous root
Of every heart on earth infixes deep its restless twists:”
—William Blake (1757–1827)
“She saw the couches of the dead, and where the fibrous root
Of every heart on earth infixes deep its restless twists:”
—William Blake (1757–1827)
“Black creeps from root to root,
each leaf
cuts another leaf on the grass,
shadow seeks shadow,
then both leaf
and leaf-shadow are lost.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“Justice in the hands of the powerful is merely a governing system like any other. Why call it justice? Let us rather call it injustice, but of a sly effective order, based entirely on cruel knowledge of the resistance of the weak, their capacity for pain, humiliation and misery. Injustice sustained at the exact degree of necessary tension to turn the cogs of the huge machine-for- the-making-of-rich-men, without bursting the boiler.”
—Georges Bernanos (1888–1948)