Today, mushrooms and all fungi enjoy status as a kingdom of their own, called fungi, which is seperate from plants and animals and can trace its ancestral roots back to a single organism.
A mushroom is known as the mainly above ground, fleshy, fruiting body of a fungus, usually comprising a stem attatched to a cap, often umbrella-shaped, and often with gills.
Although 'fruit' implies seeds, mushrooms instead develop microscopic spores rather than seeds underneath their caps or in tubes or sacs, which are spread by weather and animals.
In proper conditions (wet and murky), these spores germinate into a sophisticated network of underground threads called the mycelium or mycelia in the plural.
Although a mushroom’s life above ground can be fleeting, the mycelium from which it originates can feed off the Earth’s nutrients and live for years.
Mushrooms have an amazing ability to adapt and respond to environmental conditions.
Fungi are capable of both learning and decision making, also possesing a short-term memory capacity.
Scientists generally believe that fungi led the way for plants and animals to exist on Earth.
Plants eventually followed years later, and survived, in part, by establishing their partnerships with fungi.
Fungi are further divided into classes, two being:
Just like a fingerprint, key to a mushroom’s indentification is its spore print. To obtain this, the mushroom’s stem is removed and the cap is placed gill-side down on a transparent surface, such as a piece of plastic overnight. As the spores are released from the cap, they create a powdery impression (just as when dusting for fingerprints!) that mimics the shape of the cap’s gills (or pores, or spines, or so on). Placing the transparent surface over a light-colored or dark-colored paper reveals the true colors of the spores.
Other considerations for mushroom indentification included whether juices appear upon breaking, bruising reactions, scent, taste, color, shape, habitat, and growing season.