Protéoïde root

The roots protéoïdes are roots of Plante S which form dense groups of short very brought closer side rootlets. It can constitute a thick carpet from two to five centimetre from thickness located right under the leafmold dead. They improve absorption of the nutrients of the ground, probably by chemically modifying their environment in the ground to improve solubilization of the nutrients. It results from it that the plants with protéoides roots are able to push in grounds very low in nutrients, like the grounds naturally deprived of Phosphore from Australia.

These roots were described initially by Adolf Engler in 1894, after they discovered them on plants of the family of the Proteaceae cultivated in the Botanical garden of Leipzig. In 1960, Helen Purnell examined 44 species belonging to ten kinds of Proteaceae and found protéoïdes roots in all the kind except for Persoonia . She created then the name of roots “protéoïdes” in reference to this family of plants in which one knew them. One knows protéoïdes roots now in 27 kinds different of Proteaceae , like at approximately 30 species concerned with other families, of which the Betulaceae , the Casuarinaceae , the Elaeagnaceae , the Leguminosae , the Moraceae and the Myricaceae. Similar structures appear at certain species of Cyperaceae and Restionaceae , but them Physiologie still remains to be studied.

Some Proteaceae , like the Banksia S and the Grevillea S , are developed in the sectors of the Horticulture and the Floriculture. In culture, it is advisable to use only Engrais with low phosphorus content, bus of the higher amounts cause a toxicity with phosphorus and sometimes a deficiency in Fer, leading to died of the plants. Let us opératoons farming must limit the disturbances of the roots and the fight against the adventitious ones must be done by mowing or treatment containing weedkillers of contact.

Horticulture put aside, few plant species with protéoïdes roots present an economic interest. The only crop plant with protéoïdes roots is Lupinus albus (the white lupin).

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