Scientists have mapped the vast microscopic network of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi crucial to life on earth.
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) do not spend their time building mushrooms for human delectation.
Instead, these microscopic undersoil organisms perform a range of far more important tasks, unseen and unheralded. AMF are the unsung heroes of the botanical world.
The estimated length of this hidden web is 110 quadrillion kilometres - a practically unimaginable figure.
A quadrillion is a 1 followed by 15 zeros. The Earth is 93 million miles from the sun, meaning that the entire fungal network could reach from the Earth to the sun more than 735 million times, or circle our planet 2.7 trillion times.
The universe of mycological wonder has just expanded even more.
