Roots and shoots part four. Green Alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens) is a plant with a deep tap root. This is a young specimen and it's already pretty long. Some plants have a mass of fibrous roots but a tap root grows straight down with smaller roots branching off. In doing so the plant can access moisture and nutrients at deeper levels and the root provides a very firm anchor.

 P. sempervirens is a widespread weed/wildflower with a mass of foliage and an abundance of small blue flowers in spring. Actually I would describe it as semi-evergreen rather than sempervirens. A prolonged cold spell may cause the foliage to die back but the tap root makes it pretty indestructible. And hard to eradicate as many gardeners have found. It's difficult to extract without snapping the root and will regenerate from what remains in the earth. 

 Actually -as I have said more than once in this diary- I like Green Alkanet. So do bees, they like it very much indeed. Certain plants resist our attempts to defoliate the planet and I place P. sempervirens in that category.