Fungi
live in soil as long, complexly interconnected hair-like threads
usually only one cell thick. The threads are called "hyphae." Food
circulates throughout the hyphae much like blood in a human body.
Sometimes, individual fungi can grow to enormous sizes; there are
mushroom circles hundreds of feet in diameter that essentially are
one single very old organism. The mushrooms we think of when we
think "fungus" are actually not the organism, but the transitory
fruit of a large, below ground network.
Certain types of fungi are able to form a symbiosis with specific
plant species. They insert a hyphae into the gap between individual
plant cells in a root hair or just behind the growing root tip. Then
the hyphae "drinks" from the vascular system of the plant, robbing
it of a bit of its life's blood. However, this is not harmful
predation because as the root grows, a bark develops around the
hyphae. The bark pinches off the hyphae and it rapidly decays inside
the plant, making a contribution of nutrients that the plant
couldn't otherwise obtain. Hyphae breakdown products may be in the
form of complex organic molecules that function as phytamins for the
plant.
Not all plants are capable of forming mycorrhizal associations.
Members of the cabbage family, for example, do not. However, if the
species can benefit from such an association and does not have one,
then despite fertilization the plant will not be as healthy as it
could be, nor grow as well.
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