![\"\"](\"https:\/\/chippstree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Trees-Fungus-And-The-Wood-Wide-Web-IMAGE-.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Beyond the trees on private property, however, we are very much interested in trees in the wild and the way that forests function. Until recently, it was thought that mushrooms and fungus were purely detrimental to plants, causing disease and impeding their health. But researchers in the 20th century realized that there is, in fact, a symbiotic relationship<\/a> between fungi and trees whereby trees get phosphorus and nitrogen and mushrooms receive carbon-rich sugar. Almost all trees have fungus growing in their roots, and this fungus spreads throughout the entire floor of any given forest, allowing trees to share nutrients \u2013 a phenomenon we’ve discussed here on the blog before \u2013 and warning one other about threats. Trees already send warnings by aphid, but the wood-wide web \u2013 or myco-net as it is sometimes called \u2013 is much more precise and articulate, giving trees a better sense of how and when to react.<\/p>\n This complex relationship between fungus and forests is four hundred and fifty million years old and the complexity of this relationship has raised the question of whether a forest comprises many individual organisms, or whether it functions a single super-organism. Either way, one thing is certain: when you’re in the forest, there’s a whole network of transactional and social activity beneath your feet at times. So, if you thought that trees where just big, unintelligent plants living at the whim and mercy of nature, think again. Trees and intelligent fungus<\/a> make up a badass hybrid that can defend itself \u2013 though not against chainsaws as of yet.<\/p>\n