Botanni

This pretty lady hung out with me in a garden near Birds of Prey…

DIGGING DEEP REVEALS THE INTRICATE WORLD OF ROOTS

If you've ever driven past wild prairie grasses swaying in the Kansas breeze and felt a wave of appreciation for America’s heartland, you should know that those visible grasses are just the tip of the iceberg.

“We’re pretty blind to what’s going on beneath the soil,” says photographer Jim Richardson, who became well acquainted with the world of dirt while working on “Our Good Earth,” a 2008 National Geographic magazine story.

The bulk of a prairie grass plant, it turns out, exists out of sight, with anywhere from eight to fourteen feet of roots extending down into the earth. Why should we care? Besides being impressively large, these hidden root balls accomplish a lot—storing carbon, nourishing soil, increasing bioproductivity, and preventing erosion.
Unfortunately, these productive, perennial grasses (which live year round) are more rare than they once were.

Richardson wanted to reveal these roots to the world, highlighting not only their productive attributes but also their surprising scale and intricacy. Logistically speaking, he had to get creative, because if you were to try and dig up the roots of switchgrass from any old prairie, you would destroy them in the process.

“You can’t get them out of the ground. You’d be going down ten feet and trying to excavate all around them to get them out. It just wouldn’t work,” he says.

So Richardson collaborated with Dr. Jerry Glover, an agroecologist and a National Geographic Emerging Explorer who developed a method of growing tallgrasses in “root-tubes” (made from PVC pipes) while he was working at the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas. It takes a year or two to grow the plants. When they’re ready, the tube is split and, after a good wash, the roots come out intact and ready for their close up.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/.../digging-deep...

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Crews are in the final stretch of planting hundreds of thousands of native grasses, plants and trees at Ada County’s new Park at Expo Idaho. 🔗⬇️