bio

Hypha

A single microscopic, tube-shaped filament that makes up the body of a fungus; the plural is hyphae. Each is only a few thousandths of a millimetre wide, and millions of them weave together into the mycelium. A hypha is not an empty pipe but a pressurised biological cylinder: inside it the cytoplasm flows, carrying sugar, phosphorus and signalling molecules across the network. It is through these threads that plant and fungus exchange their goods.