aerial roots???

[mdvaden]

aerial roots on a pohutakawa.

 

 

Looks like a giant bird nest.

 

Is that typical of the aerial roots on that species?

[DrewB]

yeah it is, just like witches broomsticks. some trees are covered in them, some have none whatsoever.

[David oakman]

Here we go found today on a hornbeam.

[Bundle 2]

Thats fairly comprehensive David....thanx 4 posting; my inquiry tho' was to depose a theory that only the smoooth barked trees produce this kind of rooting...Personally dont think this can be the case however, your photos are further evidence that they most certainly do!

 

The definitions of aerial v adventitious....(?)

 

Root - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Adventitiousness - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Seems a bit of an unclear if not academic, scientific differentiation.....

 

( Havent read this one yet...)

Types of Roots

[Amelanchier]

I am repeating a hypothesis that was presented on a another forum ( internet slag I know! ) but it was something along the lines...

 

Observations of aerial rooting over the years has lead to an anecdotal theory that it can be seen, quite commonly. BUT that it seemingly only occurs on smooth barked trees like..eg. Hornbeam ( Carpinus spp) Beech ( Fagus spp )....

 

Anyone else find it on oak for instance....?

 

Interesting point. Platanus and Tilia as well (smoothish bark). I've seen some fibrous rooting in large Q. cerris unions where detritus has built up. Not Q.robur or petrea from memory. Something tells me Ulmus and Robinia would do it as well (suckering species).

 

From what i've learnt at college they are called adventitious roots, and can form from any dormant bud if the conditons are right (dark, wet)

 

That's my understanding - dormant buds are meristematic tissue. Which can become any other kind of tissue (meriSTEMatic cells!). They will be 'activated' by environmental triggers (light, moisture, etc) or plant hormones (auxins, gibberelins etc).

 

The propogation technique of layering relies upon exactly this. Which reminds me Tim, Blickling Hall have a large Q. cerris in their gardens which has self layered successfully.

[gibbon]

Interesting point. Platanus and Tilia as well (smoothish bark). I've seen some fibrous rooting in large Q. cerris unions where detritus has built up. Not Q.robur or petrea from memory. Something tells me Ulmus and Robinia would do it as well (suckering species).

 

 

 

That's my understanding - dormant buds are meristematic tissue. Which can become any other kind of tissue (meriSTEMatic cells!). They will be 'activated' by environmental triggers (light, moisture, etc) or plant hormones (auxins, gibberelins etc).

 

The propogation technique of layering relies upon exactly this. Which reminds me Tim, Blickling Hall have a large Q. cerris in their gardens which has self layered successfully.

 

 

Iteresting piont about meristems Tony.

 

I have seen masses of ariea roots exploiting build up of soil underneath well established epiphytes on tropical trees. When groups of orchids and bromeliads have been present for some time and have begun to build up soil from their own debris, there is often a fiborous mass of tree roots as well as epiphyte roots present.

 

I guess, if you were a growing bud and found yourself in a dark inch thick layer of rottening plant matter, it would make more sense to become a root than to reach for the stars and become a shoot even if you are quite some distance from the ground.

[Bundle 2]

Tony, Gibbon...sorry to be a boar but check this.......

 

 

" Adventitious roots are the ones that form from shoot tissues, not from another (parent) root. Most commonly, adventitious roots arise out of stems, originating via cell divisions of the stem cortex or less often from axillary buds hidden in the bark....."

 

from here..

 

Types of Roots

 

I would concur however that the crucial issue here is that the tissue does not differentiate...that is to say that it does not have a blueprint programmed into it that determines exclusively the purpose to which the plant may be able use the result of the cell manufacture....Perhaps this is why we call trees "living" and use terms like "dynamic" to describe a real time element to their life processes.....!

[David oakman]

I stumbled on this today when out walking the dogs:001_smile:

[David Humphries]

Good shots David, fine old pollard.

 

Any ustulina in evidence?

 

 

 

 

 

.

[Bundle 2]

Nice one David....Sycamore are a smooth barked tree until they arent anymore eh!

Thanks for posting.