Leaf Surfaces = Microbial Habitats
Imagine all the leaves of all the plants currently living on planet Earth.
Now, add up all the surface areas of all of those leaves.
And your answer is?… No idea?….
Luckily, some microbiologists have made an estimate, and it’s an astounding number.
According to a current review (see ref 1 below), the terrestrial [...]
Archive for the ‘The Neighbors’ Category
Life in the Phyllosphere: What Microbes Commonly Dwell on the Surface of Leaves?
Posted in The Neighbors, tagged botany, ecology, Nature, plants, science on October 11, 2009 | 3 Comments »
The Wood-Wide-Web: Are Plants Inter-Connected by a Subterranean Fungal Network?
Posted in The Neighbors, tagged ecology, evolution, fungi, plants, science, symbiosis on October 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Mushrooms are the visible manifestations (sexual organs, actually) of microscopic, soil-dwelling fungi that form mutually-beneficial partnerships with plants.
Since these filamentous fungi interact with the roots of plants, such symbiotic relationships are called mycorrhizae, literally “fungus root”.
Fossil evidence supports the idea that these plant-fungal partnerships are as old as the emergence of terrestrial plants (about 500 [...]
