[HN Gopher] Root System Drawings
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Root System Drawings
Author : bookofjoe
Score : 230 points
Date : 2025-10-18 13:52 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (images.wur.nl)
(TXT) w3m dump (images.wur.nl)
| mellosouls wrote:
| Nice link, for anybody coming to the comments first, it isn't a
| sample of linux system layouts as I thought.
| perihelions wrote:
| I thought it'd be about Lie groups!
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_system
| joshdavham wrote:
| The context of HN is interesting. We see the word "root" and
| immediately assume it has to do with a filesystem or math...
| but not actual, physical roots haha
| fragmede wrote:
| Or other math! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_of_unity
| userbinator wrote:
| I thought it'd be about the superuser account.
| cynicalsecurity wrote:
| Not what I expected, but this is really cool.
| hagbard_c wrote:
| Who'd'a'thought I'd come across root drawings from my old
| university where I studied at the Forestry faculty which produced
| these.
| bookofjoe wrote:
| HN is like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates: you never know
| what you might get!
| daemonologist wrote:
| How are these produced? I assume they're not actually digging a
| giant trench and taking a section, but are the drawings based on
| measurements of a specific individual in some way?
|
| In any case, very cool to have such a collection.
| throwup238 wrote:
| They usually are. It's a process akin to archaeology where they
| have to carefully wash away the dirt from the root system,
| measuring as they go. The problem with this method is that it's
| hard to reconstruct the entire 3d structure of bigger plants
| like trees so a lot of the root drawings on the site don't
| accurately show how deep they go. It's much easier with small
| plants where the researcher can control the soil used.
|
| Modern methods like xray CT or ground penetrating radar can do
| it nondestructively in the field but they're usually expensive
| to set up compared to just sending some grad students to dig.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| I had assumed they had grown the plant between two vertical,
| parallel panes of glass.
| imp0cat wrote:
| That would probably produce a distorted image of the root
| system.
| immibis wrote:
| On the contrary - I think you'd get an accurate image of
| a very distorted root system!
| Karliss wrote:
| Collection history page has a photo for part of the process
| https://images.wur.nl/digital/collection/coll13
| paulgerhardt wrote:
| A few ways. This particular project is doing it by hand and
| very tedious.
|
| The traditional way of transplanting large trees while keeping
| the root system intact is with a hydrovac. A machine the size
| of a jet engine that liquifies the soil with water and then
| vacuums it up. [1]
|
| More recent developments have tried using an AirSpade which
| doesn't use water but compressed air to blow apart and then
| suck the soil without making a slurry which is better as the
| soil can be redeposited in the same hole rather than
| discarded[2]
|
| [1] https://youtube.com/shorts/HinwD5-Q2xA
|
| [2] https://youtu.be/B3XomJ6Z1I4
| oasisbob wrote:
| I'm not sure that either of these methods count as
| traditional.
|
| Air spades in particular are primarily used for rootwork, not
| transplanting. Bareroot methods are used for smaller trees.
| Bare rooting leaves roots in a very vulnerable state, so
| doing it on larger trees you intend to move and keep alive is
| a serious logistical challenge.
|
| The most traditional method I can think of is "ball and
| burlap" where root balls are cut free in the field, and
| retrieved later in the season for final packaging.
| alienbaby wrote:
| reminds me alot of patterns from diffusion limited aggregation.
| thirtygeo wrote:
| Really neat. I've often wondered about what the unexposed part of
| trees and plants are.
|
| Like: am I walking on them? Are they tapping down somewhere deep
| or are they shallow.
|
| The examples on a hill were interesting; I would have thought the
| extent would be skewed but it was fairly even
| Arch-TK wrote:
| For plants, and trees too I guess, you can just grow your own,
| dig it up after a while, and inspect for yourself.
|
| Today I finished picking tomatoes from my tomato plants and
| pulled them up to avoid them rotting in the field as the
| temperature goes down. It was curious to see how the root
| systems varied both between the two tomato varieties I had
| planted, the location of the plant in relation to surrounding
| grass, and the type of soil they ended up in.
| Sponge5 wrote:
| Recently there was an exhibition of tree root illustrations by
| Jitka Klimesova in Prague. I think there's potential for more art
| emerging from science.
| 29athrowaway wrote:
| From the perspective of a plant... In soil, you have: silt, clay
| and sand. Plus other plants, fungi, worms, microorganisms, rocks,
| insects, animals, etc. Each plant needs different nutrients
| (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and others), need different pH
| levels, can tolerate different salinity, etc. There might be
| different humidity, precipitation, wind speed, the water tables
| are different...
|
| I guess all these differences translate into how the root must
| structurally develop to satisfy all those requirements and
| constraints.
| joshdavham wrote:
| I like to think of a plant's roots as an analogy for the
| knowledge required to create something.
|
| As a weird example, a web app may be like the exposed plant above
| ground while the roots are that developer's knowledge. The plant
| is what others see, but the roots are the intricate system that
| was required to create the plant.
| emil-lp wrote:
| Previously
|
| 71 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39974646
|
| 16 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29672733
|
| 18 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29672733
| JohnHaugeland wrote:
| i thought these were nervous systems until i started reading
| comments
| zkmon wrote:
| Wow. What did I just see? Wonderful and so satisfying.
| Interesting to see that some plants are tiny above ground
| compared to their existence below ground - plant-cartels :)
|
| I always suspected that rivers are like trees - they also might
| have a hierarchy of streams (root system) inside the sea.
| Sometimes this root system is exposed to above "ground" in the
| form of deltas and streams around them.
| vool wrote:
| There's a Mastodon bot for that...
|
| https://stefanbohacek.online/@roots
| skrebbel wrote:
| Ever thought you yanked a dandelion out by the entire root? Think
| again:
| https://images.wur.nl/digital/collection/coll13/id/676/rec/3
| fragmede wrote:
| no wonder the damned things keep coming back!
| loandbehold wrote:
| That's where glyphosate comes in handy.
| dsalzman wrote:
| Whats the units?
| zyberzero wrote:
| It says cm, so centimeters (1/100 meter) - slightly less than
| 0.4 inches
| MikeCoats wrote:
| Centimetres.
|
| Their 13 cm high plant specimen had a 456 cm deep root.
| nfriedly wrote:
| My dad told me that one year his school held a contest over the
| summer to see who could get the longest dandelion root.
| collinvandyck76 wrote:
| Always good to have a weed puller in your toolshed. A stand-up
| puller, specifically, that operates as a lever, allowing it to
| first grab deeply and then through a rotation of the handle it
| pulls out quite a bit of the root system. A lifesaver if you
| have a rain garden which is really just a synonym for weed
| garden.
| colordrops wrote:
| Any recommendations for a particular weed puller?
| octol wrote:
| Imagine if there were a consciousness in each of those complex
| systems.
| Evidlo wrote:
| Was thinking about vectorizing these and using a pen plotter to
| make some cool art for my wall, but the images are not very high
| resolution, unfortunately :(
| veeti wrote:
| I've been doing some small scale basil growing at home using
| kratky hydroponics in glass jars. It's always interesting to
| check how the roots have grown and expanded overnight.
| kjellsbells wrote:
| Naive question, possibly poorly formed: what is the purpose of
| the parts of the plant? Eg the leaves are for collecting energy
| and the flower for reproduction...so is the "thing" that all that
| work is going to benefit really just the root stem?
| Woberto wrote:
| Isn't reproduction the point? The roots exist to obtain water,
| nutrients, minerals; leaves gather energy from the sun; this is
| used to grow fruit, or whatever is used for reproduction
| ofalkaed wrote:
| Digging up and drawing the root systems of plants might be my
| dream job, I love digging, plants, and slow methodical tedious
| work. Anyone hiring? Pinus sylvestris[0] and Quercus robur[1] are
| good entries with numerous examples to compare. I would love to
| see a photograph of the exposed roots of their Sequoiadendron
| giganteum.
|
| [0]
| https://images.wur.nl/digital/collection/coll13/search/searc...
|
| [1]
| https://images.wur.nl/digital/collection/coll13/search/searc...
| nelliottca wrote:
| just start
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