Mycorrhizal relationships lie at the base of the food webs that support much of life on Earth. About 500m years ago, these fungi facilitated the movement of aquatic plants on to land, fungal mycelium serving as plant root systems for tens of millions of years until plants could evolve their own. Today, most plants depend on mycorrhizal fungi – from the Greek words for fungus (mykes) and root (rhiza) – which weave themselves through roots, provide plants with crucial nutrients, defend them from disease and link them in shared networks sometimes referred to as the “wood wide web”. Globally, the total length of fungal mycelium in the top 10cm of soil is more than 450 quadrillion km: about half the width of our galaxy. These symbiotic networks comprise an ancient life-support system that easily qualifies as one of the wonders of the living world.

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The plant is Voyria corymbosa, a non-photosynthetic species which depends entirely on its fungal partners for its nutrition. The sample was collected in a lowland tropical forest in Panama.

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The scan was made using confocal laser scanning microscopy with differential staining of plant and fungal tissues.

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Video © Merlin Sheldrake