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The picture to your left shows Voyria truncata. However, you only see the part which appear above the soil surface, which mostly constitutes only a small fraction of the shoot. The stem can extend up to 20 cm underneath the soil where it develops endogenously from the root. It even can be branched subterraneously (picture to your right). The arrow in the picture marks the surface line. |
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The more or less horizontally growing roots are fleshy, brittle, up to 2 mm thick and the longest piece that I could dissect unbroken from the soil is 7 cm long (picture to your left). They are intensively intermingled with roots of neighbouring plants (which is essential for its nutrition! See literature below). |  |
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The exclusively root-borne shoots always appear at side roots, mostly two of them at one side root (picture to your left). A primary shoot could never be found. Due to the constrictions of the soil it has to grow through, shoots can attain strange shapes (see picture to your right). |  |