Brainspace – July 2019

brainspace SUMMER 2019 27

Québec’s

“breathing” forest

In Sacré Coeur, Québec, strong

winds blew through a forest,

shaking its trees and making

the ground rise and fall like it

was breathing! Roots are at the

heart of this phenomenon. Firmly

planted roots heaved along with

the trees that were swaying to

the force of the winds. The earth’s

movements above the roots were

like your chest rising and falling

when your lungs breathe.

Tiiiimberrr!

Without a strong connection to their soil, plants and trees would fall over!

Roots have to push through soil resistance when moving underground, and

while thick soil can halt or stunt them, resistance also helps keep roots in

place. However, roots sometimes choose looser, hole-filled paths for easier

mobility, which isn’t exactly helpful for trees’ vertical lifestyle!

TRY this

You will need:

• PENCIL


• PUSH PINS


• STRING, WOOL OR THREAD


• SCISSORS


• FOAMBOARD
  OR CORKBOARD

1. Place the corkboard (or
   foamboard) on a table or
   flat, stable surface.


2. Cut 6 to 8 pieces of string
   into varying lengths but no
   longer than 8 inches.


3. Tie strings onto the pencil
   above its sharpened end
   leaving long strands like
   the roots of a tree.


4. Keeping the pencil in the
   middle of the board, stretch
   the strings out around the
   pencil. The strings should
   form a circular shape
   around the pencil like rays
   of the sun. Like roots, the

strings may not be the

same in length.

5. Use push-pins to
   individually secure each
   end of the strings into the
   corkboard.


6. Using judgment and
   patience, gently wind each
   string around the push-pins
   until the pencil is upright
   and straight.


7. You’ve succeeded when the
   pencil stands on its own.

The pencil represents a trunk,

the strings the roots and the

corkboard is the soil. The push-

pins are like the roots and

tendrils that hook into the earth.

External factors like wind

and terrain also affect a plant’s

stability, however root systems

organize and mutate to tough

it out! Trees growing on slopes

grow their roots parallel to the

slope instead of evenly around

the tree to deliver extra support

in needed areas.

classifying the entire system as taproot.
The radicle grounds the plant while
diving deep into the soil to find water.
“Secondary” roots grow out from this
root and help search for water and
nutrients, but these later roots stay
closer to the soil’s surface.
When root systems start from other
parts of a plant, like its stem, they are
classified as adventitious. Growing in
response to challenging environments,
these can get pretty weird! Strangler
figs grow adventitious aerial roots
that wrap around neighbouring trees
to collect nutrients and water from
the air, sometimes “strangling” their
host in the process! Even stranger, the
adventitious stilt roots of the walking
palm tree were once thought to “walk”
the tree around, even though they
merely grow on one side to provide
s t a b i l i t y.

Use Zappar. Scan to watch

the forest breathe

Use Zappar. Scan for a video demonstration of

this experiment.