I had to repot one of my Calatheas, because this one was a bit unhappy with the potting configuration.
It has been growing in semi hydro for half a year now, and has been in soil before when I bought it.
This is why the upper parts of the roots are brown-ish.
They make rhizomes, similar to ginger or potatoes, to store energy for the future. From those bulbs can also emerge new shoots if they are near enough the surface, and can be divided there for propagation if the plant is big enough.
I wouldn’t recommend it tbh.
Transitioning plants, especially calatheas and such, from soil to hydro is very very veeery annoying.
You have to get every little last bit of dirt off, or else everything rots away.
This process can be quite challenging for many plants, and I would advise anyone without expertise to not bother, or else you’re up to a lot of frustration.
You can easily get a few cuttings of the Maranta leuconora if you want.
Propliftingis the term you’ll want to search for ;)They can be very easily propagated via cuttings, opposed to Calatheas which can only be done via root splitting