alt Hacker NewsPoplars have underground roots, but they are not "underground root stems" per se. Their main stem is the trunk we see growing above ground.
Poplars have underground roots, but they are not "underground root stems" per se. Their main stem is the trunk we see growing above ground.
I'm mostly using the terminology from the Pando article. The article quotes a "Mitton and Grant" as writing:
> quaking aspen regularly reproduces via a process called suckering. An individual stem can send out lateral roots that, under the right conditions, send up other erect stems; from all above-ground appearances the new stems look just like individual trees. The process is repeated until a whole stand, of what appear to be individual trees, forms. This collection of multiple stems, called ramets, all form one, single, genetic individual, usually termed a clone.