Lifelines

The usual notion of a tree root is that it has a large root mirroring the trunk, running as deep underground as the trunk runs up into the sky. Or, like Tobin’s sculpture, it has a series of deep roots, but that’s his artistic license, not to mention a practical way of allowing people to walk through and sit upon this sculpture. Few tree species have these legendary taproots. Most of a tree’s roots are within two feet of the surface. You can see this plainly when a tree is uprooted in a storm or erosion and wind conspire to topple it.
Clipped recently from the underside of an uprooted tree: a bit of a tree’s rhizosphere, or root system. This is where the fungal mycorrhizae and root team up to provide water and minerals for the tree, carbohydrates for the fungus. Just as we humans are actually a sort of colonial life form, inseparable from our bacteria, trees are a complex system of life forms working together.