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)
“But a cultivated man becomes ashamed of his property, out of new respect for his nature. Especially he hates what he has if he see that it is accidental,—came to him by inheritance, or gift, or crime; then he feels that it is not having; it does not belong to him, has no root in him and merely lies there because no revolution or no robber takes it away.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Delight at having understood a very abstract and obscure system leads most people to believe in the truth of what it demonstrates.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)