Re: Contractile Roots

From: Sue Zunino <SNALICE at aol.com> on 1997.09.09 at 13:51:50(1196) Could this be what happens? The bulb puts out contractile roots as stablizers, the plant grows, the bulb wastes away, the weight of the plant causes it to settle into the wasted bulb's hole, the plant dies then rebuilds it's new bulb at a deeper level where the next contractile root growth anchors it, and the process begins all over again. So do the roots actually PULL it down, or does it simply settle and restablize? In the case of konjak and titanum, there is a lot of weight to be born by the bulb. I'm trying to visualize how roots can pull. Bill Lanchaster at Humboldt State University has a konjak growing in his compost pile. He mentioned that he tried to dig it up once, but gave up. He says it PULLS itself further down each year. It must be 4' to 5' below the BOTTOM of the compost pile where it began. That's 10 to 15 years of droppage

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