Shallow roots

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Uprooted by the wind spruce: shallow roots are vulnerable in a storm, especially when in monoculture are planted

Shallow roots are trees or other plants with roots that spread like a plate in the upper soil layers.

They include many species of spruce , the Banks pine , often the Douglas fir , the hornbeam and the willow . In poor soil conditions, shallow roots cannot find optimal support and are at risk of windthrowing in strong storms . With good soil conditions and suitable rocks, shallow roots can often develop a good root system and attach to whole boulders. They are then usually stable.

The risk from windthrow depends not only on the species-specific root form and the location conditions, but also, above all, on the structure of a forest stand: Trees that are closely cultivated have a high h / d ratio and thus less stability than trees in appropriately thinned and / or unevenly structured stands . Most of the time, the trees on the edge (with branches far down) are more stable than those in the interior, even if they are all spruce.

The opposite of the shallow roots are the tap roots . As part of near-natural silviculture , tree species of both types are planted in so-called mixed stands or as mixed forest . As a result of the stand structure, which is usually more naturally differentiated, the risk of extensive windthrow damage ( domino effect ) is reduced here compared to pure stands .