There’s a huge world out there… It’s just too small to see, but we feel it everyday!

The leaves and fruits of plants have long served as a source of food, but long before the rise of the animals, the plant kingdom was providing food for an invisible world of microbes. Termed the phyllosphere, the surfaces of plants are colonized by microbial metropolises that bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microbes call home. Often, these microbes are just along for the ride, sipping miniscule amounts of nutrients from the plant and minding their own business. But in some cases, what happens in the phyllosphere dramatically impacts the host plant—and, subsequently, what and how we eat. Here are a few of my favorite examples of microbial shenanigans in the phyllosphere.

via To the Phyllosphere and Beyond! | Lucky Peach.