root (Q1494)

(1.) Collectively, all those portions of a plant body that are anatomically distinct from the shoot, the component axes not differentiated into nodes and internodes, and branching endogenously. (2.) A vascularized, primary or higher-order (branch) axis that is not differentiated into nodes and internodes and that branches endogenously, together with any non-axial structures borne from it; usually growing below ground level, but sometimes structurally and functionally specialized and growing wholly or partly aboveground (e.g. aerial root, knee root, pneumatophore).