Poinciana root system

Sydney horti

Do poincianas have invasive root systems? Are they unsuitable to plant near underground concrete water tanks or sewage tanks? Location is Bundaberg, Queensland on acreage. Thanks - this is my first post.

lpankhurst1

Did anyone answer the question about how deep a Poinciana's root will grow?

Eric Frei

Well, invasive is a difficult term as it means different things to people.

Yes the tree has buttress style base and root flare so needs some room for maturity. The base including buttresses could go up to 2m wide here, but that would be a very old tree, but it is common to get them around 1m wide so they need room.

They can, depending on conditions get some surface roots but nothing like ficus trees.

Roots can travel some distance but seldom will you get roots larger than say 40mm dia further than the dripline so again nothing like a ficus tree roots.

Rooting depth, depends on soil somewhat but when stump grinding they do go down a fair whack, better than some other species.

As far as root damage goes, well I'd say keep out of the mature SRZ area for sure with any infrastructure unless you protect it with root barrier.

These trees need room, but they are not as bad as ficus for root vigour or distances.

Hope that helps.

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