Fungus Biology

Fungi are not plants

Fungi were once treated as plants but botanists and mycologists now consider them to make up a separate Kingdom Fungi [external link]. This group with tremendous diversity outnumbers species of plants.

Fungi are consumers

Like animals, and unlike plants, all fungi are consumers that obtain food from other living or dead organisms. Fungi and animals cannot produce their own food like plants. Consumers use the oxygen released by plants and algae to "burn" their food in a controlled manner, breaking it down to simpler molecules and releasing stored energy, which are then used to build up their own bodies.

Fungi, though often unseen, provide critical roles as decomposers, scavengers, mutualists, pathogens, and even predators. Decomposers (saprobes) recycle dead organic material, for example, bread mold, wood rot, and portabella mushrooms. Pathogens (parasites) feed on living organisms. Examples include Dutch elm disease, wheat rust, and sulphur shelf. Mutualists (beneficial symbionts) form beneficial partnerships with other organisms; notable among these are the lichens that are associated with algae, and the mycorrhizal fungi that support plant growth by associating with roots. Boletes and chanterelles with oak and pine, and microfungi with many terrestrial plants are good examples of mycorrhizal fungi.