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What is the evolutionary history of symbiosis in plants?

Littleton Lacelett

Symbiosis is when two different things work together to help each other. For example, a bird might eat bugs off of a rhino's back, and in return the rhino gets cleaner skin!

In plants, symbiosis happens when different types of plants work together to make food or protect each other. The history of symbiosis in plants goes back a really long time.

One example is mycorrhizae, which is when a fungus grows on plants' roots and helps them absorb nutrients from the soil. This has been happening for over 400 million years! Another example is nitrogen-fixing bacteria, which live in special nodules on certain plants' roots and help them take nitrogen from the air and turn it into a form the plant can use. This has been happening for over 100 million years!

In recent years, scientists have also discovered that some plants even work together by sharing resources through underground networks of fungi called mycelium.

So, even though plants can't move around like animals, they still have ways of working together with different species to survive and thrive!