Specialized Roots

•  Food Storage Roots •  In certain plants the roots,

or part of the root system, is enlarged in order to store large quantities of starch and other carbohydrates. Carrots, beets and turnips have storage organs that are actually a combination of root and stem. Approximately, the top two centimeters of a carrot are actually derived from the stem.

Examples: Sweet Potatoes, beets, carrots

Specialized Roots

•  Water Storage Roots •  Plants that grow in particularly

arid regions are known for growing structures used to retain water. Some plants in the Pumpkin Family produce huge water storing roots. The plant will then use the stored water in times or seasons of low precipitation. Some cultures will harvest the water storing root and use them for drinking water. Plants storing up to 159 pounds (72 kilograms) of water in a single major root have been found and documented.

Specialized Roots

•  Propagative Roots •  To propagate means to

produce more of oneself. Propagative root structures are a way for a plant to produce more of itself. Adventitious buds are buds that appear in unusual places. Many plants will produce these buds along the roots that grow near the surface of the ground. Suckers, or aerial stems with rootlets, will develop from these adventitious buds. The ‘new’ plant can be separated from the original plant and can grow independently.

Specialized Roots

•  Pneumatophores   Breathing roots to help

plants that grow in very wet areas like swamps get enough oxygen. These roots basically act like snorkel tubes for plants, rising up above the surface of the water so that the plant can get oxygen.

  Examples: Mangrove trees and bald cypress

Specialized Roots

•  Aerial Roots •  There are many different kinds of aerial roots

produced by a wide variety of plants. Orchids produce velamen roots, corn plants have prop roots, ivies have adventitious roots and vanilla orchids even have photosynthetic roots that can manufacture food. Banyan trees have aerial roots that grow down from the tree branches until they touch find the soil. In a nutshell, aerial roots are roots that are not covered by soil hence out in the air. They can facilitate climbing and various types of support as demonstrated by ivies and creeper plants.

Specialized Roots

Specialized Roots

Specialized Roots

•  Buttress Roots •  Buttress roots (stilt roots or prop roots) are

large roots on all sides of a shallowly rooted tree. Typically, they are found in nutrient-poor rainforest soils and do not penetrate to deeper layers. Almost all types of mangroves have these types of roots. They prevent the tree from falling over (hence the name buttress) while also gathering more nutrients.

Specialized Roots - Buttress

Specialized Roots

•  Contractile Roots  The contractile roots continually pull the

plants deeper into the ground as the stem elongates so the it remain subterranean or at an appropriate level in the ground.. Contractile roots are usually broad, fleshy, vertical, tapering, wrinkled looking and very distinct of the rather cylindrical fine absorbent roots and are capable of incredible effort.

-  Lily Bulbs.

Specialized Roots - Contractile

Specialized Roots - Parasitic

•  Parasitic Roots •  Parasitic roots are found in non-green parasitic

plants. These plants cannot make their own food and obtain food from the host. These plants have no chlorophyll necessary for photosynthesis. Dependent on chlorophyll-bearing plants for their required food materials, adventitious roots from the nodes of these plants penetrate into the host tissue (via peg-like projections called haustoria) and enter into its conducting tissue (water-conducting and food-conducting) to acquire their nutrition.

-  Dodder

Specialized Roots - Parasitic

Dodder

Mycorrhizae

•  Mycorrhizae form a mutualistic association with plant roots.  Fungus is able to absorb and concentrate

phosphorus much better than it can be absorbed by the root hairs.

-  Particularly susceptible to acid rain.

Mycorhizae