This year has been a good year for finding fungi.

I have been intrigued by the number of times I have discovered almost complete circles of fungi around trees, often called Fairy Rings.

Unfortunately, I do not know their names.

Having taken photographs of these, I do intend to try and identify them.

The mushrooms seen at this time of year are the fruiting bodies.

These contain spores that help the mushrooms reproduce and disperse.

The mushroom or fruiting body is only part of the fungi.

Hidden from view are individual strands called hyphae, which come together to form a network called mycelium.

These threads have a similar function to the roots of a tree, extending out and absorbing minerals.

The one drawback for fungi is that they cannot make sugar. For that, they rely on forming mutualistic relationships with plants. The fungi benefit from the plants that give them carbon-rich nutrients. In return, they offer the plants mineral nutrients from the soil.

For this exchange to happen, fungal threads have to bore into the roots of the trees, creating what is known as a mycorrhizal network.

These mycorrhizal networks are complex, and it is only in recent times ecologist Suzzane Simard demonstrated this complexity. She established that trees not only benefit from the exchange of nutrients but can also communicate their needs.

At the time of her work, the world wide web allowing people to communicate through the internet was establishing itself. So to describe the communication network between trees, the Wood Wide Web was coined.

If you get the chance, read the book by Suzzane Simard, Finding the Mother Tree. It is a fabulous read.