Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures

by Merlin Sheldrake

PRECISELY WHAT IS passing between plants through fungal networks is a thorny question for all researchers investigating wood wide webs. It is a lack of knowledge that leads to some conceptual impasses. For instance, without knowing how information passes between plants, it’s impossible to know whether donor plants actively “send” a warning message, or whether receiver plants simply eavesdrop on their neighbor’s stress. In the eavesdropping scenario, there is nothing that we might recognize as deliberate behavior on the part of the sender. As Kiers explained, “If a tree gets attacked by an insect then of course it’s going to scream in its language: It will produce some sort of chemical to get ready for the attack.” These chemicals could easily spill over from one plant into another through the network. Nothing is actively sent. The receiver plant just happens to notice. Johnson uses the same analogy. If we hear someone screaming, it doesn’t mean they are screaming in order to warn us of something. Sure, a scream may cause us to change our behavior, but it doesn’t imply any intention on the part of the screamer. “You’re just eavesdropping on their response to a particular situation.” It may seem like splitting hairs, but a lot turns on which way we read the interaction.