The Fungi Network: How Nature Communicates.
The pressures of this society can really cause a negative effect on your emotional well being. The everyday responsibilities to survive in this matrix can be draining. The best way that I can ground myself and get away from all of it is by getting out in nature.
I love to go on hikes throughout the forest with my soulmate. We take our time walking quietly together taking in all the sights and sounds of nature. When the time is right we will communicate with each other discussing different topics that may be affecting our lives, or just have intimate communication with each other strengthening our connection. But we are not the only ones communicating at this time. All of the trees, plants, fungi,and the entire forest are communicating with each other. They are the fungi network.
A Mycorrhizal network is an underground network found in forests that is created by the hyphae of fungi joining with the plant roots. This network will connect individual plants with each other.
When we think of fungi or fungus, we think of the mushrooms popping up above the ground. But that is actually just the "fruit" of the fungus. The majority of the fungal organism lives in the soil and is interwoven with tree roots.
Plants connected with each other through this network can alter their behavior. They release chemicals above and below the ground to communicate with each other to help reduce damage from the environment.
Studies have shown that trees are able to pass nutrients underground to each other. Some scientists say trees can cooperate with older trees and pass nutrients to seedlings helping them grow like a parent does with a child. The older trees or "mother trees" have the most fungus connections. Their roots are more established in deeper soil and this access helps them pass along the nutrients that the sapling needs.
German forest ranger Peter Wohlleben came up with the term "Wood Wide Web" to describe this network. By sending electrical signals through the network underground, trees can learn, remember, nurse one another and keep dead stumps alive.
We have not even begun to study or understand the complex world of fungi nor the communication that goes on beneath the Earth's surface. There is much we can learn at the interconnections going on below the ground.
As we walk through a forest there are many different trees, plants, fungi all living together and supporting each other. Even though they are different, they work together for the good of the forest. Even though they are different, they utilize their uniqueness to help each other. We can learn much from the fungi network.
The Fungi network is difficult to learn because we are dealing with living organisms. We do not want to go and dig up roots and destroy the living organism we are trying to learn about.
The network is so intricate it kind of reminds me of our brains. Truthfully we only know a little bit about the total function of our brain. Much of our brain is closed off and because we are living beings and it's vital to our survival it makes it difficult to study. Same with the fungi network.
The flora of the Earth has much to offer us. It can bring us happiness when we are sad. It helps us to have oxygen to breathe. I guess that's important. It can provide shade from the hot sun. It can provide water to quench our thirst. It can provide medicine to heal our bodies.
But one of the most important things the flora of Earth can provide for us is the example of the fungi network and how various different species of plants embrace the uniqueness of each other, communicate together and help each other survive on this Earth.
The Fungi Network. Our example to put down our differences, embrace our uniqueness and work together for the good of all.
The Fungi Network. How Nature Communicates.
By Michael Walters
The Ancestor's Fire
Writing the voices of the unheard
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