What does ingrowth mean exactly?

Question

The definition states:

The act of growing inward or into.

So "vegetable ingrowth" can mean vegetables or part of a vegetable that grew into a hole? What are the other meaning that "growing inward" can mean, can it also mean inward of a deliminated area?

In the lime stone in the upper portion of the section there was originally an elaborate model of a Lead Mine, now obliterated with white wash; and at the present time the beds and bands of coal are disintegrated and destroyed by the ingrowth of vegetables.

^{Source: How the ‘Seven Deadly Agents of Destruction’ can help preserve the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs}

I am not sure what's meant by model of a lead mine, but they probably mean a real lead mine and that the ingrowth of vegetables grew into the cave and disintegrated and destroyed the beds and bands of coal.

Answer 1

vegetation in-growth = growth of vegetation is areas such as lakes or forests. It means growing in lakes or forest and is a noun. In other words, the vegetation is growing "inwards" in the site, not spreading out of it.

Active fire suppression has led to extreme fuel loading and vegetation in-growth throughout Syilx/Okanagan Territory, Glaser said.

climate change

In the quote above, it just means: vegetation growing in an area.

The term is from forestry and forestry management:

Vegetation in-growth. This report assumes that in-growth is managed with regular treatment (e.g., with herbicides) that limits in-growth. If in-growth is allowed and fire is suppressed, estimates of carbon pools on-site may significantly increase, especially for longer time periods.

[...] Simulate the effects on carbon pools and fire after either natural seedling in-growth or planting in the understory.

It means vegetation growing in the space between trees in forests. It is said to "grow in". Grow in between other things.

in-growth_native English

At a coastal site, large-scale climate variations affect the shoreline displacement as well as the development and in-growth (sediment infilling and vegetation in-growth) of lakes.

from the Swedish but the term is right and so the paper's English

algae bloom is an example of vegetation in-growth in a lake, if algae is considered vegetation, which I think it is.