Mycorrhizal network

In forests, trees' roots connect underground to each other with the facilitation of vast networks of fungi that facilitate mycorrhiza, or tree-fungi symbiosis. Trees use the networks to share nutrients and information with each other. The fungi benefit by taking some of the carbon-rich sugars the trees generate in photosynthesis. New York Times science journalist Ferris Jabr comments that the process displays an "interspecies selflessness of trees, however — a practice that verges on socialism."

The existence of mycorrhizal networks confirms the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples according to the forest ecologist Sm’hayetsk Teresa Ryan, of Tsimshian heritage, "There are many aboriginal groups that will tell you stories about how all the species in the forests are connected, and many will talk about below-ground networks.”