Most plants can make their own food from sunlight, 1 some have discovered that stealing is an easier way to live. Thousands of plant species get by 2 photosynthesizing (光合作用), and over 4:00 of these species seem to live by pilfering sugars from an underground 3 of fungi(真菌). But 4 in a handful of these plants has this modus operandi been traced to a relatively obscure fungus. To find out how 5 are 6 , mycologist Martin Bidartondo of the University of California at Berkeley and his team looked in their roots. What they found were 7 of a common fungus, so 8 that it is found in nearly 70 percent of all plants. The presence of ’this common fungus in these plants not only 9 at how they survive, says Bidartondo, but also suggests that many ordinary plants might prosper from a little looting, too.
Plants have 10 relations to get what they need to survive. Normal 11 plants can make their own carbohydrates through photosynthesis, but they still need minerals. Most plants have 12 a symbiotic relationship with a 13 network of what are called mycorrhizal fungi, which lies beneath the forest 14 . The fungi help green plants absorb minerals through their roots, and 15 , the plants normally 16 the fungi with sugars, or carbon. With a number of plants sharing the same fungal web, it was perhaps 17 that a few cheaters —dubbed epiparasites-- would evolve to beat the system. 18 , these plants reversed the flow of carbons 19 it into their roots from the fungi 20 releasing it as "payment".