Autoradiography for Studying Individual Root Systems in Mixed Herbaceous Stands

Study of the morphology of individual root systems growing with those of associated plants is facilitated by washing a monolith of soil containing roots of plants whose tops were treated with C 1 4 applied as urea. The roots thus extracted are pressed and dried. X—ray film is applied and the labeled roots can be detected clearly on the resulting autograph. A method of measuring root length for quantitative analysis is suggested.