ETYM Latin, a mushroom.
A parasitic plant lacking chlorophyll and leaves and true stems and roots and reproducing by spores.
Any of a group of organisms in the kingdom Fungi. Fungi are not considered plants. They lack leaves and roots; they contain no chlorophyll and reproduce by spores. Molds, yeasts, rusts, smuts, mildews, and mushrooms are all types of fungi.
Because fungi have no chlorophyll, they must get food from organic substances. They are either parasites, existing on living plants or animals, or saprotrophs, living on dead matter. Some 50,000 different species have been identified. Some are edible, but many are highly poisonous. Before the classification Fungi came into use, they were included within the division Thallophyta, along with algae and bacteria.
In 1992 an individual honey fungus, Armallaria ostoyae, in Washington State, was identified as the world’s largest living thing—estimated to be between 500 and 1,000 years old, its underground network of hyphae covers 600 hectares/1,480 acres.
The oldest surviving fungi were found 1994 as dormant spores in the hay lining the boots of a hunter who died 5,300 years ago, and whose body was preserved frozen in the Alps. When the hay was placed on agar fruiting bodies began to appear. Two species were present, Absidia corymbifera and Chaetomium globosum.