Question

Stilt roots are found in:
A. Rice
B. Sugarcane
C. Groundnut
D. Gram

Answer 1

Hint: An adventitious root is a kind of root that arises from any other part of the plant other than the root tissue. One such example is the stilt roots. In the basal part of the stems these roots are seen and they arise from the nodes and grow downwards to attach to the soil.

Complete answer:
Let us see the roots present in each of the plants mentioned in the question. The first option is rice. The main root system in rice is fibrous root characteristic to all monocots. They also have nodal roots which arise from the internodes of the stems at the basal part of the plant.
Sugarcane is also a monocot plant and even contains fibrous roots. But we can also see adventitious roots growing in sugarcane. These adventitious roots are stilt roots and these are very important for sugarcane as the stems are very weak and fibrous roots cannot take up the function of anchorage.
The next option is groundnut. Groundnut or peanuts contain a taproot system where there is one primary root and secondary roots arise from the main root. Groundnuts do not contain any adventitious root but they do have root nodules with nitrogen fixing bacteria.
Gram being dicotyledonous plants, contain taproot system. Even in gram plants adventitious roots are absent.

So, from the above information we can conclude that sugarcane is the only plant that has stilt roots from the options given in the question.

Note:
Adventitious roots are more common in monocot plants but they are also seen in dicots. In mangroves a lot of adventitious roots can be seen in the plants growing there. Prop roots are adventitious roots that grow downwards and help in providing anchorage. The difference between stilt root and prop root is that proper roots grow vertically downwards into the soil but stilt roots grow at an angle and stilt roots arise at the base in contrast to prop roots that arise at higher parts of the plant.