The aim of this work was to investigate the quantitative relationships between the rates of fungal soil exploration and their effects on plant growth and phosphorus (P) nutrition in soil with varying P availability. Ectomycorrhizal associations were established between Pinus pinaster and the basidiomycete Hebeloma cylindrosporum. Plants were grown for 4 and 6 months in mini-rhizoboxes filled with a 0.5 mm soil layer with two contrasting P levels (−P and +P soils), containing 3 or 50 mg of bicarbonate extractable P per kg of dry soil, respectively. Surface areas of the soil layers colonised by the roots and the hyphae were estimated using image analysis. High P availability decreased the rates of fungal soil colonisation, calculated as 0.92 ± 0.19 cm2 day−1 plant−1 in the −P soil and 0.42 ± 0.1 cm2 day−1 plant−1 in the +P soil over the 4–6 months period. Four-month old mycorrhizal plants accumulated lower amounts of biomass and total P than non-mycorrhizal plants, regardless the level of P availability. By contrast, 6-month old mycorrhizal plants were larger and contained more P than non-mycorrhizal plants, especially in the +P soil. However, mycorrhizal plants were always different from non-mycorrhizal P-deficient plants, which had an increased root surface and root P allocation. To explain these contradictory results, we propose that P accumulation by mycorrhizal plants derives mainly from fungal P uptake. The net P transfer from the fungus to the plant was estimated as 0.36 and 0.66 μmol of P per cm2 of mycelium in −P and +P soil, respectively. Our data demonstrated that, despite the inhibitory effect of the high soil P availability on the rates of fungal soil colonisation, the ectomycorrhizal symbiosis was more efficient to improve host plant P nutrition in these conditions.