Could you maybe add some context to this? Where are these from and how where they done? Are these based on real plant root systems studied by what method?
Here’s what Wageningen University has to say about this collection:
This collection holds 1,180 drawings, the outcome of 40 years of root system excavations in Europe, mainly in Austria. The drawings, their analysis and description were done by Univ. Prof. Dr. Erwin Lichtenegger (1928-2004) and Univ. Prof. Dr. Lore Kutschera (1917-2008) *, leader of Pflanzensoziologisches Institut, Klagenfurt, (now in Bad Goisern, Austria).
Their work led to a number of publications, and is a counterpart to the work by John E. Weaver in Nebraska, USA. These scans of the original drawings, made by Univ.-Prof. Dr. E. Lichtenegger (d. 2004), cover not only a wide variety of species ranging from agricultural crops to associated weeds, but also natural vegetation, from orchids to alpine shrubs and trees. The drawings represent rooting systems of individual species carefully isolated from their environment, and drawn in fine detail.
This image shows one of the teams doing the excavation and measurements on site.
I have tried digging up just a bit of some plant roots for an experiment once and it was just so much work! Can’t imagine how much effort this must have been for everyone involved :O
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