The Wood-Wide Web: The natural living internet system

Next time you go out for a walk in the woods be careful where you tread because underneath your feet connecting tree to tree, plant to plant, lies a remarkable living network that allows the exchange of information between between individual plants.   This network allows the flora of the forest to send and receive information over distances from plant to plant, connecting a large and varied population of individuals together. In fact, this remarkable network is itself alive and is a web of fungi that grows on the roots of trees and plants connecting them together allowing them to communicate and to even send assistance to each other.  More sinisterly, it also gives some of  the plants and trees connected to the network the ability to commit types of "crime" against other members.  It sounds very similar to the modern global communications system of the internet.  In fact it is a living network of fungi and has been called the Earth's natural internet and many scientists refer to it as The Wood-Wide Web.

Porcini or cep (Boletus edulis) - by © Hans Hillewaer - CC BY-SA 4.0

Fungal connections

We usually think of fungi as mushrooms, toadstools and mould, but these are actually the visible parts called fruits that  are above ground that we see.   Below ground lies a web of fine threads called mycelium.   These threads run from root to root, and plant to plant, linking the roots of a multitude of different plants.  Sometimes plants several meters distant are linked creating a living mesh that can conduct information and nutrients to other members of the web.  It gives them the ability to help each other out, but it can also use it for darker purposes, such as sabotage, or "chemical warfare," and other types of "cyber-crime."   Read more