buttress root

noun

1. a tree root that extends above ground as a platelike outgrowth of the trunk supporting the tree. Buttress roots are mainly found in trees of tropical rain forests

Example Sentences

On Sunday afternoon, battered by wind and rain, its main buttress root snapped and the tree fell.

From Washington Post

The snapped main buttress root, which was about the width of a fire hose, could be seen in the mud.

From Washington Post

Hooting and hollering, he gallops up to the giant buttress root of a tree, grips its crest with his hands, and beats on its wall-like surface with both feet, making a racket that can be heard more than a kilometer away.

From Science Magazine

Then the climb really started, as the trail became steeper and more slippery, and we were watching every foot placement for roots and rocks. The primary forest with huge buttress root trees replaced the secondary forest, and the smell of decomposing leaf litter was everywhere. 

From New York Times

The felled trunks, each with a wide buttress root attached, are carried into the village, where the women greet them with rejoicing as if they were enemy corpses.

From Time Magazine Archive