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Buttress roots also known as plank roots are large, wide roots on all sides of a shallowly rooted tree. Typically, they are found in nutrient-poor tropical forest soils that may not be very deep. They prevent the tree from falling over (hence the name buttress) while also gathering more nutrients. Buttresses are tension elements, being larger on the side away from the stress of asymmetrical canopies. The roots may intertwine with buttress roots from other trees and create an intricate mesh, which may help support trees surrounding it. They can grow up to tall and spread for 30 metres above the soil then for another 30 metres below. When the roots spread horizontally, they are able to cover a wider area for collecting nutrients. They stay near the upper soil layer because all the main nutrients are found there. Buttress roots vary greatly in size from barely discernable to many square yards (square meters) of surface. The largest for which there is photographic evidence is a Moreton Bay Fig ('' Ficus macrophylla'') at Fig Tree Pocket (an outlying district of Brisbane, Queensland) which was photographed in 1866 with an adult man. The buttresses were 40 to 50 feet (12 to 15 meters) long and 35 to 40 feet (11 to 12 meters) in height. Halfway out the buttress is twice the height of the man. It died in 1893 from flood damage. The tallest buttresses are those of ''Huberodendron duckei'' (Bombacaceae) of the 
Buttress roots also known as plank roots are large, wide roots on all sides of a shallowly rooted tree. Typically, they are found in nutrient-poor tropical forest soils that may not be very deep. They prevent the tree from falling over (hence the name buttress) while also gathering more nutrients. Buttresses are tension elements, being larger on the side away from the stress of asymmetrical canopies. The roots may intertwine with buttress roots from other trees and create an intricate mesh, which may help support trees surrounding it. They can grow up to tall and spread for 30 metres above the soil then for another 30 metres below. When the roots spread horizontally, they are able to cover a wider area for collecting nutrients. They stay near the upper soil layer because all the main nutrients are found there. Buttress roots vary greatly in size from barely discernable to many square yards (square meters) of surface. The largest for which there is photographic evidence is a Moreton Bay Fig ('' Ficus macrophylla'') at Fig Tree Pocket (an outlying district of Brisbane, Queensland) which was photographed in 1866 with an adult man. The buttresses were 40 to 50 feet (12 to 15 meters) long and 35 to 40 feet (11 to 12 meters) in height. Halfway out the buttress is twice the height of the man. It died in 1893 from flood damage. The tallest buttresses are those of ''Huberodendron duckei'' (Bombacaceae) of the Amazon basin
The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...
which extend up to 70 feet (21 meters) up a tree about 145 feet (44 meters) in height. The most extensive buttresses are those of Kapok, or Silk Cotton Tree ('' Ceiba pentandra'') of the Neotropics and tropical Africa. The buttresses can extend up to 65 feet (twenty meters) from the tree as buttresses, then continue as superficial roots for a total of 165 feet (fifty meters).
Notable and historic specimen trees with buttress roots
*'' Ceiba pentandra'' of Vieques, Puerto Rico *Moreton Bay fig ('' Ficus macrophylla'') in Queensland, Australia * Jackfruit (''Artocarpus heterophyllus''), India *'' Terminalia arjuna'', IndiaReferences
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