I ran across these beautiful line drawings of some common cover crops that show the distribution of the root systems. (From Indiana CCSI.)

It is a great example of the mechanism by which planted ground cover vegetation holds the soil in place to resist the erosive force of moving water.

The scale on the left side is the depth (in inches) of the roots.

Root Illustrations of Cover Crops

Hey Rod, in my area of scarce rainfall, I’ll take all the erosion I can get. I recently helped some of it along.

Rod, what is the scale? I assume inches, but not sure.

There is a depth scale marked in inches (using very tiny font) on the left side. I assume the scale of the horizontal axis is the same scale as the vertical axis.

I really liked the drawing of the very dense shallow roots of the Annual Ryegrass. If you could get that quickly established on your shore and dam slopes, then a frog-strangler rain would NOT fill your pond with 2' of silt shortly after construction.

Thanks. My biggest erosion issue is on the back of the dam. Long, deep fissures hidden by overgrowth, extremely treacherous. Great place to break an ankle!