Relationship Provides Nutrients, Stability

A massive layered fungus grows on a tree covered in moss

Biological Strategy

Giant polypore

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Image: Michael Gäbler / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY - Creative Commons Attribution alone

Protect From Wind

Wind subjects living systems to various forces, such as compression, twisting, turbulence, and tension. These forces put living systems at risk of losing the ability to perform life-essential functions, such as when a plant becomes uprooted. Wind can result from weather phenomena or rapid movement through the air, as when flying. Wind is typically not a constant or predictable force, so living systems must be able to function both with and without its presence by adjusting to its direction and speed. A good example is how plants’ leaves and stems are flexible so that they can align with the wind, rather than being battered by it.

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Cooperate/Compete Between Different Species

From parasitism to mutualisms, there are endless interactions between organisms in nature. Interactions between species that lead to a negative outcome for one species are known as competition. Cooperation occurs when organisms work together for the benefit of each organism or species. While competition often occurs over resources or mates, the more biologists have begun to look for examples of cooperation in nature, the more they have found. For example, around 90% of plants have a beneficial partnership with fungi. Fungi provide the plant with nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, in exchange for sugars from the plant.

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Cycle Nutrients

In ecosystems, there is no such thing as waste. Instead, one organism’s waste can be considered as another organism’s resource, and the cycling of nutrients may be the most important form of recycling in living systems. But sometimes those nutrients are transformed by one organism into a form that isn’t readily used by other organisms. For example, lignin is a complex organic molecule found in the cell walls of plants. In a forest, it’s one of the hardest molecules to break down in woody vegetation. Therefore, ecosystems include organisms that are particularly well-adapted to break down different types of nutrients. In the case of lignin, some fungi and bacteria release lignin-modifying enzymes that can break down the lignin to form carbohydrates and other life-supporting chemicals.

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Basidiomycetes (Club fungi)

Division Basidiomycota (“club fungi”): Mushrooms, smuts, rusts

Basidiomycota are the iconic group of organisms that comprises up to one-third of all fungi: 16 classes, 1,589 genera, and about 30,000 species. Basidiomycota is the second largest group of fungi next to Ascomycota, the sac fungi known as molds, yeasts, and powdery mildews. Basidiomycota hold a worldwide importance in food, culture, folklore, and medicine. Most club fungi reproduce through spores, while a small group can reproduce asexually. While many mushrooms are foraged and eaten by people, some can produce deadly toxins and hallucinogens. Psilocybin mushrooms produce hallucinogenic toxins which hold some potential for the treatment of mental health disorders.

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Bracket fungi and mature trees gain nutrients for both and structural stability for the trees thanks to their mutualistic relationship.

“Because this first visible sign of the [bracket] fungus only appears when the tree is elderly or already stricken, it is usually assumed that it is the fungus that has infected the tree like a disease and is bringing about its death. But that is hardly just. The fungus has not attacked the living tissues of the tree, only the dead timber. And now, far from harming the tree, it brings it considerable advantages.

“To start with, the remains of the wood, after the fungus has digested it, are in a form that the tree can absorb. So as this rotted pulp accumulates on the ground within the hollowed trunk, the oak puts out small roots into what was once its centre to reclaim some part of its lifetime savings. And there is new valuable nutriment there too. The hollow trunk has become an attractive home for animals. Bats roost in it, hanging from its walls. Owls nest there. And droppings from these creatures fall on to the ground within and provide further rich sustenance for the tree.

“The removal of the tree’s dead heart brings yet another advantage. The change of form from solid pillar to hollow cylinder alters the way in which the trunk reacts to mechanical stress. It is much more resilient and stable. The removal of many tons of timber also reduces the strain on the tree’s elderly and doubtless somewhat decayed root system. The result is that an old hollow tree is often able to withstand a gale better than a younger undecayed one. In the ancient hunting parks of England such as Windsor, where trees stand out in the open, unprotected by others from the wind, it is by no means rare after a storm to discover that hollow oaks, four or five hundred years old, remain upright when younger ones, a quarter their age, have been blown over. Tree and fungus, each pursuing its own best interests, have come together to the benefit of both.” (Attenborough 1995:213-214)

Last Updated October 26, 2016

References

Book

The Private Life of Plants

21/08/1995 | David Attenborough

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