I don’t know why certain roots behave the way they do. And I don’t know whether the roots that act a certain way are different from other roots on the same plant. If I were still doing botanical research I could set out to find the secrets behind root behavior. But what could be more boring than an academic paper on the subject. And could such a paper even find a place that would publish it?
So let’s imagine for a minute that any orchid has the ability to send out dangling, exploring, or grabbing roots. Could there be an environmental trigger for these behaviors? Might root behavior have to do with the age of an orchid or how long it’s been situated in one place? And do all roots start out the same, then specializing their behavior based on the needs of the plant? What about the anatomy of roots? Are dangling roots structurally different from roots that grab? Do they start out differently? Or do they all begin their root life as a similar agglomeration of cells and tissue?
Can a wandering root, one that explores, change its mind and grab ahold of a branch? Can a grabber go dangly? Are there developmental steps that all roots go through before the plant decides (or they decide) how to behave?
It seems that certain species have their own special kinda of root behavior, but if I had a hundred of one species growing in more or less identical conditions would they all act the same, and would the roots of another species times one hundred also all act the same, and would they maintain the same difference from other species in all hundred samples?
What is it about orchid roots that makes them this way? And am I oversimplifying by naming these three categories? I see roots that seem to explode outward. Others run a great distance along a surface. Some face up and some face down. Some want to get out of the confines of their baskets and some seem to want to stay snug. Is there a genetic basis for all these differences?
So many more questions than answers and all we can do is wonder and keep on looking.
So let’s imagine for a minute that any orchid has the ability to send out dangling, exploring, or grabbing roots. Could there be an environmental trigger for these behaviors? Might root behavior have to do with the age of an orchid or how long it’s been situated in one place? And do all roots start out the same, then specializing their behavior based on the needs of the plant? What about the anatomy of roots? Are dangling roots structurally different from roots that grab? Do they start out differently? Or do they all begin their root life as a similar agglomeration of cells and tissue?
Can a wandering root, one that explores, change its mind and grab ahold of a branch? Can a grabber go dangly? Are there developmental steps that all roots go through before the plant decides (or they decide) how to behave?
It seems that certain species have their own special kinda of root behavior, but if I had a hundred of one species growing in more or less identical conditions would they all act the same, and would the roots of another species times one hundred also all act the same, and would they maintain the same difference from other species in all hundred samples?
What is it about orchid roots that makes them this way? And am I oversimplifying by naming these three categories? I see roots that seem to explode outward. Others run a great distance along a surface. Some face up and some face down. Some want to get out of the confines of their baskets and some seem to want to stay snug. Is there a genetic basis for all these differences?
So many more questions than answers and all we can do is wonder and keep on looking.
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