Illustrations of plant-root systems from 1919

[Clive_T]

Originally published at: Illustrations of plant-root systems from 1919 | Boing Boing

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[tabularasa]

Really nice find.

[Mister44]

Neat, but what was the process to figure this out?

[NickyG]

It’s one of the ways they talk, right?

[Cubist]

@Mister44

but what was the process to figure this out

Very careful excavation.

[knappa]

As can be seen in some of the other plates:

and

[Beanolini]

@Cubist

Very careful excavation.

Another way to do this is to grow the plants in a rhizotron, which is basically an underground chamber with a window onto the soil.

Root systems are really much more three-dimensional than these slices suggest, I wonder if there are 3D scans available anywhere?

[sean_burns]

They really knew how to draw their roots in the old days. not like today with those crummy root drawings you see everywhere