Palm tree roots question?

Question

in the midwest we have no palm trees, has anyone ever seen one up-rooted? how large of a root system does a palm tree have, because here we have like, pine, elm, oak and these are all very large trees and their root system is similar to what you see covered in foliage above the ground. My uestion is do palm trees then have a very small root system since above the ground the foliage is in one small little bundle???

Answer 1

Palm trees are like a giant grass.  They don't have woody roots like most trees.  They have lots of small roots.  Pull up some grass.  It is like that only on a very large scale.  The small roots will be packed tightly together spreading out from the trunk in a large radius, and also down.  If you try to dig next to a palm tree you will not get through the roots.  Individually they are small, but there are so many of them that together they are almost impenetrable.  The root system is probably as large as the tree is, but it doesn't have large roots branching to smaller roots like a pine, elm or oak tree would.