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They're pen drawings, done by hand. Most of the history of Botany was done this way - Drawings by skilled artists, using life samples painstakingly removed from
by GauntletWizard 3y ago
They're pen drawings, done by hand. Most of the history of Botany was done this way - Drawings by skilled artists, using life samples painstakingly removed from the soil, as was most of the history of biology and physiology.
You can grow plants specifically for this purpose, using less dense soil so that you can more easily extract the root system without damaging it.
- Tempest1981 3y agoImagine the patience required, first to wait years until the roots are established, then painstakingly unearth them.
- yreg 3y agoWouldn't the soil density affect the root system?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- pvaldes 3y agoYes. There aren't two root systems identical. I assume that this plants were cultured in a sandy or hydroponic mix. But the main goal is the generalization and to know how long roots can grow. For trees they wanted to know also if roots can grow up the hill against gravity (they do it all the time). This is useful to understand how stable is the structure and how useful to fix soil in place and fix erosion processes. The dune melon root is particularly funny. You can almost hear the root sniffing water right and left in the Namibian desert