A friend of mine is getting her lawn and garden taken over by this mass of roots. No green leaves or other greenery, just roots. Does anybody have any idea what it is and how to get rid of it?

Roots can't exist as roots alone. Their viability depends on other organs (stems/ leaves) to synthesize food (sugar) during photosynthesis and transport it to the roots.

Some trees have astoundingly long roots, and trees or shrubs are what you should look to as the source of the resource-robbing roots.
Al

ginger67 said: A friend of mine is getting her lawn and garden taken over by this mass of roots. No green leaves or other greenery, just roots.

If there is no plant, how are these roots taking over the lawn? They just look like any old roots - the operative word there being old: they look woody, not fresh new growth.
We need to know more about what's going on before anyone can offer useful advice.
What do they actually do that hurts the lawn?

Is it really dry where you are? Tree roots such as willows can run for '20 miles' to find water. Trees do not always depend on their main roots for water, they have 'quick roots' that the tree can grow to get ground water when it is scarce. Her garden and lawn are getting water, I assume, and trees can 'smell' it in the ground, chuckl, so those roots are spread out just under the surface of the ground to get that water. It shouldn't kill the lawn, but can be a problem in gardens.

I haven't seen it for myself but I realise there must have been some leaves/plant of some sort originally but this is all she has found. It is quite dry at the moment so maybe it is something that is travelling some distance for water. I'll ask her for more photos of the actual area for me to post.

ginger67 said: I'll ask her for more photos of the actual area for me to post.

Yeah... roots on a paper plate kinda useless for identification.

In my area, I'd think above roots were from a poplar or other magnolia relative...

Some idea of what the climate in your area might be helpful...

About all that most of us know about trees down under could be summed up in the song...
Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree...

I've seen yall's Eucalyptus trees growing out in California...

And when I searched Eucalyptus roots invasiveness... Laterals that spread for 100 ft... Certainly seems likly...

It kind of reminds me of Melaleuca roots. Theirs are even thicker than Eucalyptus. Definitely check out the trees and shrubs in the neighbor's yards.

Moved to Plant ID forum

I'll get her to check out what trees are in the area but I don't think it would be gum trees. The eucalyptus roots are usually much thicker than this. Plenty of other trees around our area though. It seems it will just be a case of finding which one. Thanks for the suggestions.

I have another photo, this time of the roots on the ground that they're taking over. There was grass here but not now. The roots are not thick, all thin like this. My friend says there are no trees in any of her or her neighbours' yards so must be coming quite some distance. Any more suggestions of what to look for?

If you have her address you could try entering it in to google maps for an overhead satellite view of the area around her house to search for near by trees.

Thanks for that suggestion Krobra. I didn't know you could do that. I'm not exactly techno savvy but I'll give it a try.

1. enter the address into the google search bar and click search.
2. top result should be a map , click it
3. on the bottom left corner of full screen map there should be a small square that says "layers",
hold your cursor or finger on it , when the word "layers" changes to "satellite" click it.
4. when you have the satellite map , use the + and - buttons in the bottom right corner of map
to zoom in and out.

Thanks for the instructions. That will help a lot.

Too thin for tree roots. Bryophytes come up with a search

Is this some kind of dodder?

I think you've hit it Tiffany. I checked out Dodder and it certainly looks like that. We'll have to read up some more to see where it could be coming from.

Dodder is parasitic and would need to have a host plant. If it is in a lawn, grasses do not host dodder. I might be misunderstanding but are these "roots" growing on the soil surface or underground or both?

Still learning about these Sue. These roots are on the surface and in the ground where the lawn was and tangled in shrubs, killing them. So I guess the shrubs are the host plant.

Is dodder the same as "love vine"?