Five (5) pairs of foreroots leave the lumbar spinal cord.
The nerve fibers in the roots L1 through L5 are part of the lumbar pelvic braid (plexus lumbo-sacralis) that gives rise to the skin and skeletal muscle nerves of the hip and leg.
The roots L1 and L2(3) contain preganglionic sympathetic nerve fibers that originate in the sympathetic spinal cord nucleus.