Agaricales (© B. Moisset)
It pleases me when I see a mushroom growing on the lawn or under a pine tree. I see it for what it is, a sign of a remarkable network, a partnership between fungi and plant roots, which benefits both, a mycorrhiza.
I am always surprised about people who have never heard the word mycorrhiza. Granted that it is a difficult word, made even more difficult by the fact that the plural can be either mycorrhizae or mycorrhizas; my spell checker doesn’t accept any of these words. Granted, also, that the body of a mycorrhiza is underground and hard to see with the naked eye. But, I suspect that the worst problem is that mycorrhizae suffer from a severe case of bad PR. To make things worse, mycorrhizae are fungi, not very popular among most people. Once again, fungi (singular fungus) are hard to know or to pronounce and also lack a good image. It would be very helpful if mycorrhizae had a name more acceptable to gardeners, such as root partners or root associates because this is exactly what they are.
This ignorance is regrettable because mycorrhizae are from very important to absolutely necessary to about 80% of terrestrial plants, from onions to rhododendrons, from pine trees to New England asters. So it is worth paying attention to them. In the past 30 years, gardeners have begun to take notice of mycorrhizae and I suspect that most readers of this blog know about them and may have used them when needed. See: The Use of Mycorrhizae in Native Plant Production (a PDF document, if that fails go to for-wild.org).
According to Wikipedia, a mycorrhiza is “a symbiotic (generally mutualistic, but occasionally weakly pathogenic) association between a fungus and the roots of a vascular plant”. The association between these fungi and plants is an ancient one, at least 400 million years old, perhaps as old as the first plants that left the water and climbed on land.
Cartoon illustrating the interaction between an ordinary mushroom's mycelium and tree roots. (© Debivort, Wikicommons)
In addition to being buried, the mycorrhizal organism is so diffuse that quite often we don’t even notice it when we turn the soil. It is an important biological component of the soil nonetheless. It is made of myriads of filaments creating a network, called mycelium (plural, mycelia), another unattractive word, sigh!
Mycelium of Stropharia (Photographer: © Rob Hille. Wikicommons)
These filaments search for the roots of plants. When they find them they wrap around them or even penetrate them, forming a very intimate connection with them. The remarkable thing about this association is that the fungus extracts nutrients from the root and returns minerals and water to it. The end result is beneficial to both of them. The fungus is incapable of producing organic substances like the plant does, so it depends on it. In turn, the mycelium is far superior to the roots in extracting water and valuable minerals from the soil. It becomes an extension of the root system that can be far more efficient than the roots themselves.
The beauty of the system doesn’t stop there. Some mycorrhizae don’t hesitate relating to more than one plant of the same or different species. They are capable of carrying nutrients from one plant to another when the second one is under stress. Mycorrhizae still have another ace up their sleeves. They associate with soil bacteria capable of fixing nitrogen and they may pass this much needed nutrient to plants. All these interactions contribute to creating a robust community, well adapted to a variety of circumstances.
Not surprisingly, native fungi and native plants have developed mycorrhizal partnerships through eons of coexistence. It is because of mycorrhizae that native plants generally can do better than introduced ones without need for fertilizers and watering. That is why I rejoice at the sight of mushrooms.
Mycorrhizal bolete (© B. Moisset)
A very useful book is “Trees, Truffles and Beasts. How Forests Function” by Maser, C., Claridge, A. and Trappe, J. It explores the interactions between trees, mycorrhizae and the spore dispersers, a trilogy in which each depends on the others.
Mycorrhizae and the Web of Life. Second part of this article
© 2012, Beatriz Moisset. All rights reserved. This article is the property of Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. If you are reading this at another site, please report that to us
About Beatriz Moisset
Beatriz this is a great post to start folks understanding…while I very limited knowledge, this adds additional information. I am always looking for more resources so thanks for those. I am like a child when I wander around admiring all the cool looking fungi in my garden…right now I have some growing with moss on a tree stump…gorgeous….I am using the picture for my Monday post on my blog…
Donna@Gardens Eye View recently posted..Gardens Eye Verse-January
Thank you for a very informational post. While I’m quite familiar with the concept of mycorrhizae, I’ve not done any reading or research on the topic in many years and you helped bring me a little more up to date.
Gaia Gardener recently posted..Mementos of Blog Entries Past
Thanks, Donna and Gaia. the topic is so vast that I will probably go into it a little deeper at a later time. In the meantime I will keep learning a little more myself.
Beatriz Moisset recently posted..Metalmark moths. More little known pollinators
Very interesting. After the wet September we had there were a whole bunch of fungi that popped up in my yard. Unfortunately they were the rather stinky and suggestively shaped dog stinkhorn fungus (Mutinus caninus). I had to keep telling myself that they were good for the soil and they did *not* look like penises all over my front yard. Okay, they did look like penises, but they indicated a healthy soil, right?
Stinkhorns are not mycorrhizal; but I am sure that they have some function in the ecosystem. Some are edible despite their smell.
Beatriz Moisset recently posted..Black-and-yellow lichen moth, a little known pollinator
thank you for the book recommendation! another one that is broader in scope, but also quite interesting is “teaming with microbes: the organic gardener’s guide to the soil food web”.
i also am glad when i see mushrooms popping up, it always makes me wonder about what’s going on under our feet. last year we discovered that we have morels growing in our yard too – they were incredibly tasty.
cheers,
julianna
Beatriz, I loved the article, I believe we have only skimmed the surface of knowledge when it comes to the complexity of relationships in nature! I used to hike the woods in Minnesota with my Grandma and find the prized Morels…yummy indeed! I just was reading in the ‘Nature Principle’ by Richard Louv that there is a natural soil bacterium which when we are exposed to, can actually improve our learning ability, increase serotonin in the brain and boost our immune system, Wow. As I sit looking out my window in Colorado watching it snow, I am hoping spring is around the corner and I am thinking we should all do a bit more hiking, digging in the dirt, and eat more mushrooms to keep us healthy, happy and wise.
Anne
Soil science is one of the most fascinating aspects of gardening. It was my favorite module in the Master Gardener certification classes.
We have shitake mushroom logs in our garden. We got them last spring from some neat folks who learned how to inoculate the logs. It’s cool picking mushrooms from your own garden instead of from the produce aisle.
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Enjoyable read Beatriz! The fungi of our world are complex and fascinating life forms . . . I too am always wanting to understand them more. They can benefit other plants and trees as your essay proves and also human health and the toxic disasters we create. I find Paul Stamets work intriguing. We had a very wet year here and there were fungi everywhere. Such a diversity growing along the garden, fields and forest floors.
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Fungi are such an important part of ecosystems, not to mention industry. In addition to mycorrhizae there are the biodegraders and the yeasts, needed for making bread, beer, wine, yogurt, etc.
But you mention the word fungus and people immediately think of disease and nothing else.
Beatriz Moisset recently posted..More little known moth pollinators: seed casebearers and flower moths
For the past few years, a puffball has been appearing in my front lawn and each year, more of them are appearing late in the year around the original. I usally associate these in shady woods where there is a lot of organic matter. I’m happy to see this puffball each year. It makes me think my lawn is healthy below the turfgrass.
I, too, thoroughly enjoyed your post, Beatriz. I’m fascinated by fungi and delighted when mushrooms appear in our backyard. They strike me as magical – popping up in unexpected places. And I especially like your analogy about “a mushroom is just like an apple, while the entire “apple tree” is underground.” That’s a great example that kids and adults can understand. Thanks for sharing and inspiring me to learn more.
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Thanks for all the kind comments. I will definitely try to cover other aspects of mycorrhizae at another time. The subject is so vast and important that I am sure that others, more knowledgeable than I, can contribute other articles.
Beatriz Moisset recently posted..Pollinators, the night shift
Beatriz,
Of course this is a very interesting topic, however, does it really surprise you that a lot or most people don’t know the term ‘mycorrhiza’? As I write, I see that g-mail doesn’t recognize the term, telling me that it’s misspelled. There could be topics that you don’t know about or even recognize that are just as important and interesting as the mushroom world. I think you’re being a wee bit condescending to your readers. You think?
Thanks for spreading the word.
Jennie Wood
I am puzzled. I mentioned in this post that, despite the enormous importance of mycorrhizae, the subject is so obscure that most spell checkers don’t include the word in their vocabularies. What is so condescending about that? Still, this lack of awareness is surprising. Ten years ago, it was just as amazing how little public awareness of pollinators there was. This has changed dramatically in recent years and I hope that a similar change of attitude toward mycorrhizae will take place soon.
As for other topics just as interesting and important as mycorrhizae: absolutely! Fungi are recyclers and we would be up to our noses on undecomposed dead matter if it wasn’t for them. Without yeasts we wouldn’t have wine, beer or cheese, not to mention our daily bread. The world is full of fascinating things
Beatriz Moisset recently posted..Pollinators, the night shift
Wow, i love your job, it is exciting. I wish i am writing for publication too. I also studied allied courses to biology and have also some subjects like ecology, zoology, etc while studying Horticulture, but i also just learned about mycorrhizae a few years ago. Maybe it is just because it has not been researched on more fully than the algae or fungi or mushrooms. We have studied lots of them, but still I am confused with terms like commensalism and such. Just recently, we have products now here encorporating mycorrhizae in soil amendments and studies really show good growths and production of crops. But i guess every crop has different type of mycorrhiza involved for benefits.
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