  A rooted planar map is a connected graph embedded in the 2-sphere, with one
edge marked and assigned an orientation. A term of the pure lambda calculus is
said to be linear if every variable is used exactly once, normal if it contains
no beta-redexes, and planar if it is linear and the use of variables moreover
follows a deterministic stack discipline. We begin by showing that the sequence
counting normal planar lambda terms by a natural notion of size coincides with
the sequence (originally computed by Tutte) counting rooted planar maps by
number of edges. Next, we explain how to apply the machinery of string diagrams
to derive a graphical language for normal planar lambda terms, extracted from
the semantics of linear lambda calculus in symmetric monoidal closed categories
equipped with a linear reflexive object or a linear reflexive pair. Finally,
our main result is a size-preserving bijection between rooted planar maps and
normal planar lambda terms, which we establish by explaining how Tutte
decomposition of rooted planar maps (into vertex maps, maps with an isthmic
root, and maps with a non-isthmic root) may be naturally replayed in linear
lambda calculus, as certain surgeries on the string diagrams of normal planar
lambda terms.
