There is a massive Norway Maple which straddles the property line between
the neighbor's house and my property. There is a communal driveway on a
steep slope, with a tall solid concrete retaining wall making a boundary
between the steep aspahalt-paved driveway to the east and my lower, level
driveway to the west. Halfway up that steep driveway the base of the norway
maple has been completely asphalted around as part of the upper driveway,
(I'm guessing at least 15-20 years ago), but it survives and thrives. At
the base off my side of the retaining wall, the soil is dense with maple
surface roots. So, apparently the roots have traveled straight down 8 feet
from the trunk of a tree, tunneled under whatever the foundation of the
concrete wall consists of, and then gone sideways for a considerable
distance. Even a person like myself, who has no great love of Norway maples,
has to have respect for the tenacity of a creature like that.....
"Marley1372" wrote in message
...
Roots can do some strange things, as I have observed from many tree and
shrub
autopsies in the past. As for the gravel- Roots will actually grow quite
easily through gravel due to the larger pore spaces, which allow for more
oxygen. We use gravel for healing in trees at the nursery, and the roots
grow
through the gravel just fine.

Toad