Hi. In my Taming Wildflowers book it points out that a number of flowers have tap roots that are very deep. As in, "don't attempt to move this flower after the first year because it's tap root is 10 feet deep". Or, "this flower is very drought resistant since its tap root goes down 15 feet."

Some of their examples are, Purple Prairie Clover, Baptisia, Wild Lupine and Compass Plant.

I like the idea of having flowers with deep tap roots. How can I get a more complete list of what's available? I tried Googling it with no luck.

Can you please throw out some names of flowers you know with deep tap roots?

Hi Gary,

I can think of three more: Poppy Mallow, Sagebrush and Dandelions

I don't know that there is a list but, plants listed as drought resistant usually have deep taproots. That's why they are drought resistant. But then cactus and succulents are drought resistant. They don't have deep taproots, just wide ranging roots and the ability to store their own water supply.

Xeriscaping plants are plants adapted to areas. The drought resistant plants are not usually friendly to others - even other drought resistant plants. Thats the survival trait kicking in. You can hardly do mass plantings of something that stands alone or fails because of too much crowding. A LOT of herbs actually have deep tap roots- I suppose because they are basically weeds...

To build on Daisyl's exception for "drought resistant [plants] usually have tap roots", google images of "prairie plant root systems". From there you will find a whole host of deep rooted plants, both tap rooted and non-tap rooted. People automatically think by intuition that tap roots are are an adaption to dry climates, but that is not necessarily so.

this is all great information. But are you seriously saying that I shouldn't plant two of these deep two root plants next to each other?