Fungi
Fungi
Fungi can range in size from single-celled yeasts to mushrooms to networks of mycelia kilometers long. In fact, the largest organism on earth is an Armillaria solidipes (honey fungus) covering 6.5 sq km of forest in North America! Mycorrhizal fungi form symbiotic relationships with plants, trading nutrients from the soil for carbohydrates produced by the plant. Fungi play a central role in decomposing wood and are important to cycling energy and nutrients from dead material back to living organisms.