buttress roots
Rainforest trunk supports
Buttress roots are large, wide roots that extend from the base of a tree trunk like fins or flanges, providing stability in shallow tropical soils.
They radiate outward from the trunk, sometimes rising several meters up the tree and spreading far across the forest floor.
Common in rainforest giants, they compensate for root systems that can't grow deep: The buttress roots of the kapok tree formed natural alcoves.
- tropicalOf hot, humid regions
- rain forestWet, dense tropical woodland
- rainforestWet tropical woodland ecosystem
- stabilityResistance to displacement
- standing tallRemaining proudly upright
anchor · mangrove · canopy · soil · shallow · flared · trunk · support · jungle · giant · kapok · fig · spreading · towering · giant trees · flood · swamp · nutrients
- rainforestrainforest, jungle, tropical, tropics, canopy
- rainforeststropical rainforest, canopy layer, forest floor, emergent layer, understory
- tropical forestscanopy layer, understory, epiphytes, lianas, forest floor
- rainforest ecologyrainforest, jungle, canopy, understory, epiphyte
- African rainforestCongo rainforest, canopy layer, forest floor, rainforest floor, understory
- jungle adaptationsbroad leaves, epiphytes, lianas, prehensile tails, tree dwelling
buttress rootstaproot
Main descending root
taproots · deep roots · fibrous roots · primary root · aerial roots
buttress, buttresses, buttressed, buttressing, root, roots, rooted, rooting, rootless