Roots
Plants have three organs: roots, stems, and leaves. Growth, flowering, food production, and storage all depend on the activities of these three organs. The combination of stems and leaves makes up the shoot system that is usually visible because it grows above the ground and gives rise to flowers, fruits, and seeds. Roots, on the other hand, are often underground, but the root system can be every bit as massive as the aboveground shoot system. An active root system makes it possible for the plant to carry out growth, photosynthesis and other chemical reactions, branching, flowering, fruiting, and seed production.
Roots are so critical to plant survival that a sprouting seedling devotes its first days to root growth before allowing leaves to pop out of the seed. During this time of early germination, the root anchors the plant in the soil and begins to deliver a reliable water supply to the growing seedling. In dry climates, the time taken by roots to find reliable water can take years. The two-year-old sprouts of some California oaks can have a three-foot long root, while their shoots are restricted to only two leaves. In the Namib Desert of Southwest Africa, Welwitschia plants spend their entire one-hundred-year life growing underground roots, leaving only two leaves on the plant even after a century of growth.
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