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Root Collar - This appears to be some sort of root collar. Woody roots pull apart the opposite way that a branch does at the branch collar. Woody roots do not have branch collars or do they form buds. Roots grow from meristematic points and not buds.

Image Source - TREES, ASSOCIATES, and SHIGO (2 CD set).

What is above the root collars is correctly called the trunk flair (not root flair). What is below the root collars are correctly called woody roots. Trees do not have what some people call "root flairs". The root collars are a transition zone from trunk to woody root. Source SHIGO DVD's. If you were to dissect the flair you would see a pith - not stele (woody roots have a stele and no pith), lots of lignin (woody roots have less lignin than wood stems, just try cutting it with a hand saw) and a green cortex - just to name a few anatomy specifics. People who claim what is above the root collars is woody roots or root flair, must have never dissected trees. This is one of the major myths Dr. Shigo wanted addressed, i.e., the flair above the root collar is a root flair, false)

See "Trunk Flair".