this was unbeliavably, utterly beautiful. It made me pause and consider: have I ever truly stopped to think about things growing? And am I a bad person for calling this process ''trivial''? Well, you turned something seemigly trivial into something magical, revealing the beauty, the poetry of it all. I loved the worldbuilding and how magical it all felt, how seamlessly it could fit into one of Tolkien's works. This is perfect. Thank you for sharing <3

I like this idea - I've been working with the notion that the Light of the Trees is "bendier" than normal light, so that we don't have to worry about things like hills and trees and walls making most of Valinor completely dark:D - presumably due to some quality of the Trees themselves, such that Light that is filtered (such as through the Sun and Moon vessels) or reflected becomes "normal" light. So, for example, if you have a room lit by a glass window, as long as it is open there are no shadows in the room, but if you close the window, you get "normal" shadows.  This would be weird to live with, and interesting to write!   It also gives us liquids distilled from plants related to the Trees that can store Light in lamps (or the Sun and Moon) and whatnot (some of which might end up in Frodo's phial!) - and, indeed, the ability to send Light through "fiberoptic" roots!  

However, my thought about the plants beyond the reach of the Trees is more that there is power stored in the earth itself (interestingly, first thought of this right before the episode of Enterprise where they ran across a rogue planet whose ecology was powered by internal heat) - but both concepts, or a combination of them, work just fine.  Cool!

This makes so much sense, that the Trees have the ability to sustain life through the ground that persists after the light is gone. I like the way you explain the science of it.

I love The Root of Light!  It's beautifully poetic and satisfying.  Re: the few extra words...to quote Guildford, sometimes you just need to wave the wizard's wand or speak a few words of Old Solar. ;^)