Prayer Plant Root Question

Question

My boyfriend has had a prayer plant for years and years that has always thrived and been completely healthy and beautiful. Decided to repot it yesterday – I bought a nicer pot. The old one was fine size wise. . . I just wanted a prettier pot. Anyway, I pull the thing out of the pot to find a very healthy root system. Very vigorous, but the weird thing was, distributed evenly and neatly throughout the roots were little bulb-like formations. They all looked exactly alike: about 3/8″ wide x 1″ long x 1/8 – 1/4″ thick and rectangular in size and the same tan color of the root system. There was absolutely no deformation or ‘sickness’ evident at all. I admit, I’ve never repotted a prayer plant before, but this struck me as something unusual. I’ve heard of root nematodes, but all the descriptions of them were completely different than this. I’m so curious about what these things are and what function they might perform. Love to hear from you about it.

Answer 1

This is normal. They are simply thickened areas of the roots where extra energy is stored and is an indicator that the plant is healthy.