Next time you are walking in a forest, woodland or just open countryside on undisturbed fertile ground, consider that there is more activity and biodiversity below the ground than what you can see above it. Among the vibrant range of lifeforms is a mostly microscopic network of fungi. Fungi are a distinct kingdom from plants; the term plants includes trees. The mushrooms we see sprouting out of the ground are, in fact, the fruit of the fungi. Below the ground, the fungal organism lives in the soil interwoven with plant roots as a threadlike hyphae fabric called a mycelium. The mycelium web expands creating a ‘mycorrhizal network’. This network connects individual plants and is used to transfer water, nitrogen, carbon, minerals and nutrients. It can be found in the top 10 centimetres of soil and may go as deep as a metre or maybe more. The German forester Peter Wohlleben coined the term ‘wood-wide web’. It is through this wood-wide web that plants communicate. This is an electro-chemical communication similar to that inside human bodies. The fungi connect to the roots and cells of plants by penetrating them or by creating a net around them, thereby also protecting them from...