Plant 52r

[ReneZ]

I don't think anyone would accidentally draw the root like that. Roots don't grow up out of the ground,  curl together and reattach themselves in a very symmetric way under normal circumstances. At the very least, it is stylized or it is an attempt to show something that the illustrator can't quite visualize in 3d.

Exactly. Rene, if we're both talking about the same thing (i.e. the dark brown part, whatever that may be, root or branches or both), I don't understand how you can call this stylized arrangement of connected stumps "not exceptional" 

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I'm not sure what is meant by 'accidentally draw', but what we see is not out of place, in my opinion, in a 15th century drawing of a plant.  The Voynich MS puts a bit more emphasis on the roots than most other manuscripts, but this is also not unique. The "impossible loop" in the roots might not be found in nature, but it is not a problem to draw it.

When I was in Burgos a few years ago, we walked along an avenue with at least 20 trees that had all been grown together, by cutting and connecting the braches. Perhaps a modern thing? I don't know.

A great number of crocodiles in medieval bestiaries have a loop in their tail. I don't think that real crocodiles can do this, but they were often drawn that way...