Did you ever have a situation when someone tells you something and then you kind of store it for awhile and then low and behold you bring it out of your brain storage? Well that’s what happened to me today. I was checking out the corn and I noticed how weird the roots look. I hated to do it, but I asked Daryl why they were above the ground and if that was a bad thing or not. Well, (this is where the brain storage thing comes in) he started to tell me that they were the brace roots of the corn that helps to hold them up when it gets windy. OK, I do remember him telling me that one time. But if you really look at these roots, they are kind of cool. So I was checking the whole reason why corn has these roots on the Iowa State University Extension page and there is a whole lot about corn that I didn’t know.The one thing on the page that was pretty interesting was this information: “Plants spend considerable energy (sugars from photosynthesis) to grow and maintain the root system, therefore growing large roots will usually be at the expense of crop yield.” I would never had guessed that. I would have thought the bigger the roots, the better the corn. Oh well, either way these brace roots are pretty cool and I really have to try to pay more attention!
Picture of the brace roots of a corn stalk
Another type of roots that I was checking out today was an apple that William had for lunch today. He was eating this apple when he realized that the seeds inside of it were all rooted and started to grow. Now I’ve never seen that before either, and after I took a picture of it I wrapped it up in a wet paper towel to keep it moist until I plant it. 