There is a particular "growth" I choose to call it,that has inhabited my neighbours yard for a few years now and is getting beyond out of hand. My neighbour two doors down dug a few up,and the root is similar to a dandelions ( sorry,I am not a gardener ),is almost 2 feet in length,but only has about 3 to 5 leaves per root (or so it seems ). He said he had to dig down almost 6 inches before even seeing the top of the main root stem. Here is a picture of the plant.no one seems to know what it is.

Hi Larock, Welcome!

Can you give us an idea of what part of the country this plant is growing? That would better help to narrow it down and someone from the same area might recognize it and be able to give an exact ID. It reminds me of a Viola of some sort but that's just a wild guess on my part. Here's are a couple of Violet leaf photos for comparison:

My guess would have also been wild violet. Which some people like and others do not. Gene

wrong root description for violets
does it ever flower?

Look at Creeping Bellflower to see if it is close.
http://invasivespeciesmanitoba...

http://www.extension.umn.edu/g...

Or Korean Bellflower/Campanula takesimana (Doraji) which is grown for the roots.
http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant...

It still reminds me of Viola of some sort; a few are native in Canada. Here's another for comparison:



Or, how about


When googling I found this site with a list of wild, edible plants of Manitoba, you can click on names for photos to get comparisons:
http://northernbushcraft.com/g...

I also found this site with photos of wild violets in Manitoba: http://www.alamy.com/stock-pho...

From the description of the roots on your mystery plant I am still thinking it is a Campanula.
Here are images from our database:

@greene You are good, I do think you've nailed the ID of Larock's plant!

Larock, you said the plant is getting out of hand so it may very well be the Creeping Bellflower (Campunula rapunculoiodes) which is listed as invasive in Manitoba:
http://www.invasivespeciesmani... and your photo sure looks like the young spring clumps shown on this page: http://calgary.ca/csps/parks/p...

Agree with C. rapunculoides. Have been trying to get rid of it for years. Didn't realize it had such a tap root. That bit of info with hopefully guide my eradication methods in the future.

The leaf shape is different...one shape near the base, changes a bit further up the stem, then more lance shaped when the plant is taller. Hope this helps.