How Fungi Built a Social Safety Net Under Your Feet
Sharon Parry
Mon, January 26, 2026 at 5:32 PM UTC
5 min read
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The post How Fungi Built a Social Safety Net Under Your Feet appeared first on A-Z Animals.
Quick Take
Plants, including trees, can communicate through thread-like structures called mycelium.
Mycelium are part of fungi, which form their own biological kingdom separate from plants.
Mother trees act as hubs and nourish younger saplings.
Communication is achieved through a number of methods, including advective mass flow, driven by a source–sink gradient.
A walk through a forest is a treat for the senses. Just stop and look, listen, and touch what is around you. The sunlight glinting through the branches, the rustle of leaves, and the rough texture of bark beneath your fingertips. But this is only a very small part of a bigger picture. The life of the forest continues underground in complex networks that you cannot see or sense. Without these networks, the forests and many other plants that we love so much could not exist.
The Essential Role of Fungus
Trees have an essential communication network that they use to share information with each other. Messages are conducted through thread-like structures called mycelium, which are actually part of fungi. Mycelium is the root-like structure of a fungus that is usually hidden from sight under the soil. It is also the part that does all the work and forms vast networks.
There is a lot more to fungi than what you see above ground.
©alexkich/Shutterstock.com
(alexkich/Shutterstock.com)Crucially for trees, mycelium wraps around or burrows into their roots. This enables trees to use this network to share water and nutrients. It is called the mycorrhizal network.
Trees Caring for Their Offspring
In a healthy forest, each tree is connected to the others by this network. However, the trees prioritize some of their neighbors over others. Research has shown that saplings can struggle to get established in shady areas because there isn’t enough light reaching them for sufficient photosynthesis. This is the mechanism that green plants use to convert sunlight into an energy form that they can use. So, older and taller trees that can access the light use the mycorrhizal network to send nutrients and sugar to the younger, struggling trees. There are some experts who believe that trees favor their relatives when sending out carbon and nutrients.
Trees Make a Carbon Trade-off
Rather than being exploited by the trees as a free conduit system, the fungi also get an advantage from this relationship. By providing this service to trees, the fungi get a regular and reliable supply of carbon. In fact, the fungi get to keep between 20 and 30 percent of the sugar that it transports. The trees also benefit from the phosphorus and other mineral nutrients, which are collected by the mycelium and transported to the trees.
Mother Trees Form a Hub
Not all trees connected to this network are equal. Some, termed ‘mother trees,’ act as hubs. They are older and typically have the most fungal connections. Because their roots reach deeper into the soil, they can access sources of water that are not available to other trees. When they pass this on to saplings, they help to nourish the next generation. However, communication is not just one-way. The mother trees use the fungal connections to sense when another tree is in trouble (sending out distress signals) and help it by sending nutrients its way.
The Science of Tree Communication
Scientists have made significant progress in understanding how trees communicate using mycorrhizal networks, though many details are still being uncovered. Currently, experts think that it involves a combination of biochemical signaling, resource transfers, or action-potential-driven electrical signals.
Trees communicate using biochemical signalling and other methods.
©DejaVu Designs / iStock via Getty Images
(DejaVu Designs / iStock via Getty Images)On the whole, trees form relationships with a broad range of fungal species, and a single fungal species can colonize many different plant species. Some, however, rely on a single host. That said, plants tend to remain loyal to a particular class of fungus. Most frequently, the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are involved. This type of fungus is most often found in temperate grasslands, tropical forests, and agricultural systems, but is also associated with some temperate forest trees. In contrast, ectomycorrhizal fungi are associated with coniferous trees as well as temperate and boreal forests. While mycorrhizal networks can be more common among related plants, they are also known to connect different species, allowing for interspecies communication and resource sharing.
How Do Substances Move Along Mycelium?
It is likely that different substances move in different ways through the mycorrhizal networks. For example, carbon is transported over long distances by what is called an advective mass flow, driven by a source–sink gradient. Basically, this means that carbon moves from an area of high concentration (the source tree) to an area of low concentration (the sink tree). Consider the scenario of a struggling sapling: because of its age and location, the sapling will have high respiration demands as it grows and will therefore inevitably have a lower concentration of carbon because it is using it up quickly. Therefore, the gradient persists, and the flow is maintained one way.
Speedy Stress Signals
Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the mycorrhizal network is its ability to quickly transfer stress signals from injured to healthy plants. It can take as little as 6 hours for healthy neighbors to receive a stress signal generated by an herbivore or by a pathogen.
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The neighboring plants upregulate their own defense-related genes, essentially preparing themselves for the same danger that affected their neighbor. This early warning system allows other plants to produce defensive enzymes to protect themselves. This is only a small part of the story, and we are only just beginning to discover the wonder of the forest’s social safety network!
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