Root Characteristics

• Grasses do not develop carrotlike taproots, and if they do, it's only initially immediately after the seed germinates and tries to quickly establish. Dig up any grass and you encounter a fibrous, branching root system that spreads. Some species of grasses develop spreading, rootlike stems called rhizomes or stolons that move outward from the main plant. As the rhizomes or stolons spread, they sprout new plants on the soil surface, helping to create a thicket of plant clones. Although started from a rhizome or stolon, the new plant further develops a fibrous root system of its own to sustain the leafy growth it later produces.