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skip1909

Do same-species plant roots fuse?

Skip1909
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago

Grafting of branches and insoculation of roots are known phenomena in plants, most obvious in clonal or rhizomatous species. More recent research or observations have documented how plants share resources in the soil, these transactions sometimes mediated by soil mycorrhizae and rhizobia. If we shrink down our observable area to a container where say 5 seeds of the same species have been planted, and they all germinate, conventional wisdom is that they'll compete and crowd eachother. My personal observation is that one seedling becomes dominant and the others dither and eventually disappear, but in a bigger pot, something like basil will happily share the space with a dozen other seedlings. Do the fine roots of these plants insoculate in the soil and basicslly become one plant? Its clear the roots become intertwined but do they actually graft?

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