Fig. 1.

(A) Root, rhizome and shoot (culm) system of a rush plant excavated during the wet (winter) season. Culms can photosynthesize year-round (Shane et al., 2009). Tough brown scale leaves cover rhizomes which are typically 100–250 mm deep in the sand. Most roots from this study were young, current-season, growing, sandbinding roots located in the upper 0·5 m of topsoil. These roots were initiated near tips of elongating rhizomes and, except for growing tips, were encased in a sandsheath along their entire length. (B) Detail of a growing root tip free of sandsheath. Scale bars: (A) = 50 mm; (B) = 8 mm.