I saw a plants root crack an asphalt road. Plants roots are crazy strong. What is the craziest damage you ever saw plants cause? Pipes? Cables? ? ?

My neighbors house literally exploded because of tree in his front yard.


There was a big storm and a lightning strike hit the tree whose roots were around the gas line. The gas line exploded into the house and blew out all the windows on the first floor and dealt catastrophic damage besides. No one was seriously hurt miraculously but it was loud enough that I legitimately thought a plane had crashed.

This sounds too crazy to be true lol. Tree (root connection + lightningstrike) exploding an entire house.

I’ve seen a gazebo pulled apart by wisteria. It was literally pulling it apart, nails and all

I've seen kudzu pull down a house. Wasn't instant, or even fast really. But just by growing over it and the various tendrils doing their thing, it collapsed.

Oh yea, climbing plants can cause structural damage to roofs and rain-drain-pipes mounted on roofs (I speak from experience). But an entire house o.O . Force of nature and natural decay always win in the long run ...

No source or anything but I find it insane that plant roots like trees can make cracks in and penetrate even poured concrete.

Crazy

Not yet but soon...an urban farmer friend of mine planted Sequoias below the power lines running through her property, once they reach the lines she'll have the company move the lines because they're protected.

Not quite what you're looking for but I needed to share it.

Don't sequoias grow really slowly?

There's been a few power plant explosions that have caused complete destruction of nearby buildings but not something I've seen personally

Well it just blew the gas range and oven across the kitchen and blew out all the windows on the first floor but they had to do nearly a full remodel because of water, smoke, and explosion damage.

Interesting strategy... my city forbids planting trees below power lines. Don't think she'll get nailed for breaking some sort of rule like that?

If they haven't figured it out by now....

Yes

It's definitely illegal there, too. Intentionally damaging public infrastructure is illegal in literally every country that has public infrastructure.

That said, I'm not sure how the laws would interact with the incredibly long timescale of the intentional damage in this case.