Roots!

Hannah dug up the root balls (the densest part of the root mass, near the surface) of these three plants. Can you tell which plant is Kernza, wheat, and wild-type intermediate wheatgrass? We’re using these plants to study the microbes that they host in the soil around their roots. Plants get most of their nutrients through interactions with these microbes (just we rely on like the microbes in our gut), so we need plants with a healthy microbiome to create sustainable agroecosystems.