Illustra Media Showcases the Wood Wide Web

The ways that plants communicate through underground
fungal networks is illustrated in a dazzling new short film

Since 2004, we have enjoyed reporting on scientific discoveries about plant communication: email systems, wireless messages through the air, and underground networks connected by fungal threads. Scientists continue to explore the diverse roles of fungi in maintaining plant communities. This new short film from Illustra Media released on March 26 brings to light some of the findings in this fascinating line of research. And (as is their custom), they tell the story with theatrical excellence.

Watch this wonderful new release, “Wood Wide Web” right here, right now. Play it full screen if you can.

For its conclusion, the film contrasts the selfish view of Darwinism, with species competing for scarce resources for their own benefits, with the creation view that the biosphere was created by a designing intelligence for beauty and the health of all species. That lesson should become powerfully clear through the science described in the narration, as well as through the artistry in nature displayed on screen.

For more on the “wood wide web,” see our articles below. Each article contains links to the research.

• Fungi Supply Plant Communities With Underground Nutrient Pipeline (17 June 2004)
• Of Talking Trees and Plant Perfumes (21 Feb 2006)
• Trees Communicate with Aspirin (25 Sept 2008)
• Plants Have Social Networks (31 March 2011)
• Fungi Shed Light on Deep Biological Mysteries (20 Nov 2011)
• Talking Plants and Secret Networks (13 May 2013)
• Invisible Influence of Plants Coming to Light (13 Aug 2013)
• Plants Use Elaborate Email System (24 Oct 2017)
• For the Love of Trees (23 July 2016)
• Nature Knows Best; see link about “nature’s traffic engineers in fungi (13 June 2018)

After watching “Wood Wide Web,” a walk in the forest will never feel the same. As you walk, look for the mushrooms, the fruiting bodies of the mycelium networks pulsing with activity underground. There’s more to their little lives than meets the eye.

There are wonders in and around us that scientists are only beginning to understand. This film is another of many that arouses our sense of awe in creation.

On Feb. 13, New Scientist published an article questioning the existence of the “wood wide web.” But when read to the end, Luke Taylor’s argument centers on what two critics consider weakness of evidence, not absence of evidence. What, not enough evidence? The list of articles (above) we have reported on for two decades includes many detailed studies of inter-species communication between forest species. At the end of Taylor’s article, the two skeptics he cites (Karst and Hoeksema) admit that a lot of communication could be taking place. And Suzanne Simard (Univ. of British Columbia), who has written books on the subject, blames the skeptics’ narrow “compartmentalized” view of ecology for not seeing the forest for the trees.

“Reducing ecosystems to their individual parts hinders us from understanding and appreciating the emergent relationships and behaviours that make these complex ecological systems thrive,” she says. “For decades, a compartmentalised approach has hindered us from better understanding why forests help regulate global climate and harbour such rich biodiversity. It is my hope that, in time, forest scientists will come to understand ecosystems as complex systems.”

I predict that science will discover even more complex communication going on in the underground fungal network than is known today. And is not the beauty and harmony of a mature forest its own evidence?

Illustra Media is one of the finest production companies in the world able to bring these “Awesome Wonders” to the screen. If you enjoy films like this, be sure to sign up for their newsletters to get information on upcoming projects. Keep in mind, too, that their work—offered freely to the world—is funded by individual donors.