Roots 11×17 Print

The tree of life provides

Roots are extremely fascinating. Often, these thick webs of life grow just as large underground, as the canopy of the tree grows above ground, sometimes even farther and wider. To drink, plants absorb water through their root tips as they grow, meaning a well established tree can survive off water several meters away from it, and they can store it within for long periods of drought.

As I learned recently from a friend, some trees can become very combative against their neighbors, using their roots and branches to attempt to kill one another. Citrus trees, for example, can have root systems as far as 40 feet away from the base, and anything that isnt a citrus within that space could become a target. The trees will grow more roots toward the target to suffocate it underground, while simultaneously growing shade branches JUST over the other tree to shade them out. Denying rivals of sunlight, keeping them small and suffocation via roots was not what I expected my morning glass of OJ to be capable of