mycorrhizal
my-koh-RYE-zul
Definition
Relating to the symbiotic association between a fungus and the roots of a vascular plant.
Etymology
Derived from the Greek words 'mykes' (fungus) and 'rhiza' (root). It was coined in the late 19th century to describe the mutually beneficial relationship between fungi and plant roots.
In the news
The article refers to shared fungal threads, which are the physical manifestation of the mycorrhizal network connecting tree roots. This term is central to understanding how resources are transferred between trees in a forest ecosystem.
Suzanne Simard's 1997 experiment really did find carbon moving between tree species through shared fungal threads, but the much more famous claim that grew from it, that mature trees deliberately send resources to their own offspring, has no peer-reviewe
Read the full article ↗ScienceBlog.com