Brilliant Mycelium

 

Beneath the surface of the forest floor is the “woodwide web” (so dubbed by German forester Peter Wohlleben). The mycorrhizal network of underground fungi filaments form this complex web of interconnection that allows trees to share resources and information with one another.  One of the people who has brought this knowledge forward is Canadian biologist Suzanne Simard.  She describes her journey of discovery in the book Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest (2021).

The mushrooms and fungi that we can see on rotting wood or emerging from the forest floor are the fruit of the fungi.  However,  most of the fungi lives underground in a vast network of mycelium that are interwoven and connected with tree roots.  The mycelium are very tiny threadlike structures that can wrap around or “bore into tree roots (National Forests.org ).  Altogether, they form the mycorrhizal network that is capable of transferring water, nitrogen, carbon and other minerals from plant to plant.

When I read Finding the Mother Tree, I was struck by a sentence in which Simard describes these mycelium as rainbow coloured.  I began picturing this in my imagination and a representative piece of art soon emerged.  In the public forest where my partner and I hike, we have been creating pieces of art from the debris left over from logging activities last winter.  This seemed to be the perfect place to visually represent the mycorrhizal network that is invisible to the human eye unless it is unearthed.  

I chose the stump of a recently felled tree and my partner drilled three holes into it.  I placed the ends of three branches into each of these holes to create the idea of “tree roots” that were upside down. I got this idea from “Seahenge”, a 4000 year old Bronze Age tree circle that was discovered in Norfolk, England in 1998.  Within a circle of Oak trunks is an inverted Oak stump with the roots pointing upside down( Seahenge ). 

Seahenge, Norfolk, UK (https://www.explorenorfolkuk.co.uk/seahenge.html)

Then, I took rainbow coloured wool and began to string it between the branches that represented roots.  I worked intuitively in the midst of the branches, imagining mycelium travelling through the soil in search of roots and then connecting to them by winding around or boring in.  I tied off the wool at each "root| I encountered to simulate this.  It wasn’t until it felt finished that I stepped back to view the work.

Branches placed in drilled holes in stump with rainbow wool mycelium.

One interesting thing about creating art in a forest is that the light is constantly changing as the sun moves, leaves grow or get eaten by caterpillars and then regrow.  There were times when the coloured wool shone and was highly visible and there were times when it was in shadow and a hiker might not even notice it.  The work flickered in and out of visibility which seemed quite appropriate.

After a number of weeks, the host stump started suckering up new sprouts from its roots.  It turned out, that this was a Maple stump and many new shoots emerged and shot up towards the sky in the midst of the rainbow coloured wool mycelium.  Nature was co-creating with me and I paid attention.  The shoots got taller and the leaves obscured some of the wool making it invisible once again.  The message for me was that if we pay attention to our interconnections, we will thrive.  You may get a different message from the co-creation. 

Maple shoots growing from the cut stump amidst the wool mycelium.

By fall, the Maple leaves began turning their famous red and orange adding more rainbow colours to the piece.  Eventually they fell off and the tiny trunks looked like more roots. 

The Maple leaves from the shoots turn yellow, orange and red amidst the wool mycelium.

And now everything is getting highlighted or obscured with snow.  The piece evolves and evolves, flickering in and our of visibility.  It informs me constantly as I visit the forest through all kinds of weather.

The Maple leaves have fallen and snow covers the bare shoots and wool mycelium.

Recently, I came across this lovely video called Brilliant Mycelium by Beautiful Chorus.  The video show simulated mycelium travelling through the earth and becoming visible to my eye.  I was very excited by this.  There is so much more to life than what meets the eye, so much magic, mystery and brilliance.  Check it out!