Plants with air roots

Air roots are the accessory organs of plants, mainly designed to absorb moisture from the air. In some plants they serve as an additional basis, and for some inhabitants of bogs such roots (pneumatophores) protrude to the surface for respiration.

Which plants have aerial roots?

Many plants possess primal air roots, and they fulfill the most diverse functions:

1. Adjacent roots are often found in tropical plants - in lianas and epiphytes. They have a green color and actively participate in photosynthesis, absorbing oxygen and moisture from the air.
2. In orchid plants, the air roots take on a leaflike shape and become real substitutes for the leaves.
3. In marsh plants, air roots become additional stilts, stilts, expanding to the size of powerful trunks. Such trees can look like a whole mangrove grove with a lot of false trunks and a single crown. Often similar roots have a banyan of the ficus genus, also known as the sacred fig tree.
4. Another marsh plant - a cypress growing on silt soil, which is constantly flooded with water, creates air roots, designed to absorb not moisture, but air. They do not grow upward, but upwards, and through their pores oxygen enters the underground parts of the plant, immersed in viscous silt.
5. Another plant with aerial roots is ivy. This climbing plant with long and creeping air roots, aiming to cling to various supports, can climb tree trunks, rocks, rocks up to a height of 30 meters.

Indoor plants with aerial roots

The most famous and popular among domestic florists are plants that have air roots:

1. Monster - a powerful tropical vine, is very popular among lovers of indoor floriculture. And without that the impressive appearance of this "monster" is supplemented by a large number of aerial roots, similar to snakes.
2. Pandanus or a screw palm . A very beautiful house plant that does not require complex care. Very quickly grows to huge sizes and has air roots on the trunk. In the wild, the adventitious roots of pandanus have the goal of rooting in the ground to create additional trunks, since the lower part of the trunk dies with them in time.
3. Ficus . An evergreen tree with airy roots-props. A very common house plant, which has many subspecies.
4. Orchids . The presence of air roots in these beautiful indoor flowers helps them with "extraction" of moisture from the air. These additional roots are support for the main roots, catching moisture and nutrients from the air.