Finding the Mother Tree: Uncovering the Wisdom and Intelligence of the Forest

by Suzanne Simard

The sugar train in my imagination didn’t stop at the roots. I’d read that the photosynthate was unloaded from the root tips into the mycorrhizal fungal partners, like freight unloaded off boxcars onto trucks. The fungal cells engulfing the root cells and extending from there as threads into the soil would be flooded with the sugar. Water brought up from the soil would rush into the receiving fungal cells to balance the sugar concentration with that of the neighboring fungal cells, just as it did in the leaves and phloem. The increasing pressure from the influx of water would force the sugary solution to spread through the threads of fungal cells enveloping the roots and then out through the hyphae emanating into the soil, like water flowing from a tap through a suite of conjoined hoses. Some of the sugars would fan out to help grow more hyphae through the soil, which would also help collect more water and nutrients to bring back to the roots.