Strange Root System

[classictruckman]

I found this picture and it looks a little weird to me, I'm not sure if it was planted to low, if it has a tap root, or if its an optical illusion.

 

[Tr33Climb3r]

Its hard to say because it could be a taproot.. what kind of tree was it...is it a taprooting species? lets start with that. It also could be a grade change or even planted to deep because as we all know a tree will send roots out of a trunk if it is under the ground i have see it

 

[classictruckman]

I don't know the species, its a picture I found on a heavy equipment site. Looks to me like a ponderosa pine or red pine maybe?

 

[Jamin_Mayer]

It is interesting.

I bet some of the Pacific Northwest Buzzers would have and idea.

 

[boreality]

Must be grade change. Trees are hard to kill on the coast.

 

[cerviarborist]

It looks like the tree came out of a hillside. I wonder if a mud or earth slide could have changed the grade level. Just from the limited background of the photo, it doesn't look like a landscaped area. Further down the trunk it looks like a secondary, or perhaps original root plate.

 

[mdvaden]

Here is a redwood I passed along Bull Creek Flats in Humboldt redwoods last year. See the previous trunk protruding beneath?

The bigger plate of roots are more recent.

It does not seem likely that just one flood did it. Apparently the 1964 floods of Bull Creek and the Eel River would have moved a lot of soil and sediment.

G. Beranek probably may have an idea about some basic changes in that area.

This redwoods looks to be triple the diameter that it was for its trunk below grade.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

trees don't keep a taproot for much past the first few years. Whenever I've seen trees like these two pics there has been some sort of drastic grade change. Amazing that some trees can cope with a grade change.

 

[classictruckman]

Yeah I thought only trees from the juglandaceae family had tap roots, and they lost them in the first 5-7 years of life.

 

[mrtree]

I came upon this old thread.

Amazing photos, I think the original photo can be explained with a soil profile examination/description.

The soils in the photo appear to be quite gravelly and I am willing to bet that the lower root system is related to a layer of finer soil (clay?) that holds water. The lower root sytem likely becomes important in times of drought when the the upper root system cannot support the demand for water.

I have seen very similar situations in sandy soils of northeast North America where prairies are common and in desert areas.

 

[mrtree]

Not so fast, there are three root systems!! I think more proof indicating soils are involved.

 

[mdvaden]

Its very likely that the lower root systems are not much for functioning roots anymore. They could be mostly dead, and just not decayed yet.

If old wood or root is buried away, it can stifle decay.

...

 

[jomoco]

Adventitious survival adaptations that maintain equilibrium.

Something oaks caint do!

jomoco

 

[MisterSir]

That's typical for pinus spp. here in Florida. Nothing to do with grade changes, that's just how they grow in this sandy soil.

 

[AxeTree]

Shag bark hickory along with pig nut hickory trees pretty much all have a tap root like that at least 12" diameter and smaller, have ripped a bunch out if fence rows and clearing lots and they all have a root system like that and were in hard clay ground most of the time

 

[Treezybreez]

Here in the Carolinas sweet gum or Liquid amber can be buried up the trunk with back fill and live. I wonder if that could be the case.

 

[guymayor]

[ QUOTE ]
Adventitious survival adaptations that maintain equilibrium.

Something oaks caint do!

jomoco

[/ QUOTE ]

Q phellos can if it has to

But not easily

 

[NickfromWI]

[ QUOTE ]
Here in the Carolinas sweet gum or Liquid amber can be buried up the trunk with back fill and live.

[/ QUOTE ]

for how long?

 

[Treezybreez]

My father-in-law back filled his back yard about ten years ago. All the Oaks died but the sweet gums are doing just fine.