Powderpuff Bracket, Ptychogaster albus ↓

Over 90% of all land plants form close symbiotic relationships with fungi through their roots, connecting to mycelium networks. These partnerships are ancient, dating back over 400 million years.

When multiple plants share these fungal connections, they form the common mycorrhizal network, which today is widely known as the "wood wide web."

This popular cultural image introduces a new biological scale, shifting our focus from the mushrooms we see above ground to the mycelial networks beneath, of which mushrooms are merely the temporary fruiting bodies.

Over recent years, the idea of a "wood-wide web" where trees connect and share resources through underground fungal networks has captivated the public. This idea suggests that trees use these networks to exchange carbon, water, and even warning signals through entire forest. However, some scientists caution that scientific support for such claims is limited, and some widely held beliefs about these connections oversimplify the complex roles fungi play in forest ecosystems.

Dr. Merlin Sheldrake highlights the risk of plant-centrism or fungi-blindness, reducing fungi to mere tools, while others criticize the use of technological analogies, which misrepresent ecological processes. Additionally, the focus on cooperation can idealize these networks, overlooking competition and the complexity of fungal roles as independent organisms. Dr. Melanie Jones says that the plant needs the fungus, but if nutrients are in short supply they will keep it for themselves, when there's excess they'll send it to the plants.

Studying underground processes is extremely difficult. Every common mycorrhizal network research tells a unique story, shaped by location, soil type, plant species, plant community composition, seasonality, etc.

Chroogomphus ↓

Green-tipped Coral, Ramaria apiculata ↑

Upright Coral Fungus, Ramaria stricta ↑

It's relevant to share the perspective of systems thinker Nora Bateson, about the notion of interconnectivity nowadays. She writes that it has become a lazy shorthand for the complexity within living systems. In its misuse, interconnection is reduced to “oneness,” missing the true depth of relationships.

She stresses that it's important to deep dive into these relationships, because real understanding of the intricate dynamics in nature informs our ethics, choices, and worldview. Simplifying these dynamics strips away diversity, information, beauty, complexity — the very essence of life.

Nora continues that unity isn’t about “being one”; it’s an active process of uniting that honors relationship and distinction. (Small Arcs of Larger Circles, p. 97-98 .)

We are one, everything is interconnected theme resonates with the critical perspective of symbiosis image too. In our earlier observations of lichens in February, lichenologist Jurga Motiejunaite remarked: "Society craves symbiosis turning out to be an idealistic union exclusive to lichens perhaps even more than it craves cute, fluffy kittens. However, it's crucial to recognize that symbiosis encompasses a broad spectrum, including parasitism."

These two Ramaria species are saprophytic fungi that get our attention with their unusual fruiting bodies, but their contribution to nutrient cycling often remains unnoticed. By decomposing organic matter they act like nature’s recyclers, converting waste into essential nutrients that plants need to grow and maintaining the carbon cycle by releasing carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere and helping plants to fix carbon into new biomass via mycorrhizal networks. ↑ ↓

Slime-lapse of Dog Vomit Slime Mold, Fuligo septica ↑ 3 hours condensed into 2 min.

Pretzel slime mold, Hemitrichia serpula ↑

Salmon-Eggs, Hemitrichia decipiens ↑

Philosopher Timothy Morton also emphasizes the importance of paying attention and studying the relationships: "the ecological thought imagines interconnectedness, which I call the mesh. Who or what is interconnected with what or with whom? The mesh of interconnected things is vast, perhaps immeasurably so. Each entity in the mesh looks strange. Nothing exists all by itself, and so nothing is fully “itself.”… Our encounter with other beings becomes profound. They are strange, even intrinsically strange. Getting to know them makes them stranger. When we talk about life forms, we’re talking about strange strangers. The ecological thought imagines a multitude of entangled strange strangers."

Closing the observation with slime molds, the strange strangers from Protista kingdom. What are the relationships that made them appear here? Do they have memories and how long do they last?