A tree keeps much of its life out of sight

A tree’s roots do more than hold it upright. Fine roots explore soil in partnership with fungi, trading carbon made by photosynthesis for hard-to-reach nutrients. This mycorrhizal exchange can enlarge the volume of soil a plant effectively searches, while root tips, microbes and decaying matter make the underground edge of a forest chemically busy.

It is tempting to turn that traffic into a kindly, forest-wide social network. The evidence is narrower: fungal connections differ among species and sites, and demonstrating a pathway does not prove that mature trees routinely nurture neighbours. The durable surprise is enough. A woodland is partly an underground economy, but its terms are local, contested and still being measured.