Find Fungi Species Near You

Types of Mushrooms

All mushrooms are fungi, but not all fungi produce mushrooms. All mushroom producing fungi are either Basidiomycota or Ascomycota.

Mushrooms are the structures used to spread fungal spores. The “body” of all fungi is formed by very fine filament like strands usually in the soil, but also in the materials like wood or some special cases insects.

Basidiomycota

Basidiomycota: Iconic cap mushrooms that use various undercap structures to increase surface area for spore dispersal. Here we see gills but other species may use pores, and others use small bump structures usually referred to as teeth.

Ascomycota

Ascomycota: the largest phylum of fungi, distinguished by a sac-like structure called an ascus that contains sexual spores (ascospores). This phylum includes diverse organisms like single-celled yeasts, filamentous molds, and edible mushrooms such as truffles and morels.

Types of Fungi

Mycorrhizal

Plant Symbionts

Fungi play an important role tapping into the roots of plants helping transport nutrients. This relationship is a give and take, but sometimes it’s not clear if its always mutually beneficial.

Two Types

Endomycorrhizal – Forms symbiotic relationships with 85% of plant families. Penetrates the roots to exchange nutrients.

Ectomycorrhizal – Form symbiotic relationship with about 10% of plant families many of which are the trees such as hard wood trees and conifers. These fungal species do not penetrate the roots but form a later around the plant roots to exchange nutrients.

Saprotrophs

Decayers / Recyclers

The great recyclers of the the planets bio mass. Saprotophs means decay nutrition. These fungi are able to break down many difficult to decompose things like wood which is a lattice of lignin and cellulose. Look for dry blocky and red wood that shows a fungus has started to degrade the cellulose helping to cycle nutrients in the forest. Shown above is brown rot where fungus is breaking down the lignin in wood.

Parasitic

These fungi are usually specialized to parasitize or active take nutrients from other species. In these cases there is no give and take of nutrients as with eh Mycorrhizal species, only take.

Species like Armillania ostoyae or famously the genus Cordyceps which has hundreds of species that are often very specific with the insect host species they infect and control to spread spores.

The “body” of all fungi is formed by very fine filament like strands usually in the soil, but also in the materials like wood or some special cases insects.

Fungi are more closely related to animals which includes humans than they are to plants. Fungi use chitin the same polysaccarhide insects use, but fungi use it to stengthen their cell walls.