This data archive is linked to the following publication: ‘Analysis of coupled axial and lateral deformation of roots in soil’ by G.J. Meijer, D. Muir Wood, J.A. Knappett, A.G. Bengough and T. Liang, as published in the International Journal for Analytical and Numerical Methods in Geomechanics (https://doi.org/10.1002/nag.2880). This data achieve contains all data required to replot any graph in this manuscript (Figures 8-18 and 20-22). Note that this paper is covered by a CC-BY license, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/