What is a tap root, Alex?
The myth of the ‘taproot’ was debunked long ago, but still seems to persist. Trees have two types of roots, anchor roots, which hold the tree up, and feeder roots, which absorb water, nutrients, and oxygen. Some young trees have a ‘taproot’ – that is a root that goes straight down, but that disappears as the tree gets older and transitions into one of the anchor roots. Most of a tree’s roots are in the top 3 feet of soil. Some species, like Oak, tend to have deeper roots, while others, like Maples, tend to have shallower roots. GT, my guess is that the plugging of the vascular system by the little buggers is so thoroughly complete that the tree can’t even access its stored reserves, hence death comes more quickly than if the tree was just in a state of decline. I’m headed to the Smokies next month, and expect I’ll see a lot more dead trees this time than my last visit, sadly.
