For 30-40 years it has been well established that trees and fungi form a symbiotic relationship where types of fungi act as extensions allowing tree roots to get further into the soil and get to water and extract nutrients. A proportion of which go to the tree in exchange for the products of photosynthesis.
But this linkage goes further, in that the fungi network links up to other neighbouring trees, including saplings growing around them. It is thought that nutrients from established trees get transferred and for example support neighbouring saplings, which may be their “offspring”, with sufficient nutrients so they can survive in the shade, waiting for an opening in the canopy. These linkages between trees are not necessarily species specific, so in a sense you can talk of a woodland community.
Inevitably this web is at its most complex, consisting of many fungi species and extensive, in primary and ancient woodlands and almost certainly non existent in most new tree planting. It also encompasses other woodland plants as well, although curiously, for some reason, the wild cabbage family have opted out what has been described as a “neural” network. Interestingly no mention was made of grassland, although I would be surprised if similar symbiotic relationships didn`t also exist.
But listening recently to The Infinite Monkey Cage (BBC Radio 4) a Canadian scientist has also demonstrated that there is actual interchange of information in the form of a bio-chemical “language”, to maintain contact with neighbouring trees. This it is suggested is used, for example, to send out warning messages from a tree being attacked by say pathogens or being grazed, allowing neighbours to ramp up their protections, producing toxins etc.
Follow this link to a BBC Video for an outline of the concept