How come many houseplants will rot if their roots sit in waterlogged soil but when you propagate plants you let the roots sit in water to grow?

Question

How come many houseplants will rot if their roots sit in waterlogged soil but when you propagate plants you let the roots sit in water to grow?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Plants develop “water roots” that require less oxygen. Soil roots cannot extract oxygen from water like water roots and those already developed soil roots will rot. Propagating stems in water promotes water roots to form, which can handle being submerged. You can then plant the cutting with water roots into soil and they sort of turn into soil roots. That’s my understanding anyway.