Mushroom

Mushroom
The toxic mushroom Amanita muscaria, commonly known as "fly agaric."
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Basidiomycota

A mushroom (also called a toadstool) is the part of a fungus that is comparable to the fruit of a plant. Unlike plants, mushrooms do not use sunlight to generate energy for themselves. Some mushrooms are edible, and are used for cooking in many countries, such as China, Korea and Europe. Other mushrooms, however, are poisonous, and can cause severe illness or death if eaten. People who search for edible mushrooms are called mycophagists, meaning "mushroom eater", while the act itself is called "mushrooming". Mushrooms have been known to support bone health and to regulate blood sugar in diabetics. It is available in Different colours and Shapes.

Kinds of mushrooms

Mushroom in Swedish forest 9

• Agarics (includes very poisonous, and hallucinogenic kinds)
• Boletus (edible)
• Chanterelles (edible)
• Coral fungi (edible)
• Cap fungi ( usually edible)
• Jelly fungi (usually edible, but tastes bad)
• Polypores (similar to boletes)
• Psychedelic (also known as shrooms)
• Puffballs (usually edible)
• Stinkhorns (edible, but smells bad)
• Tooth fungi

Structure of mushrooms

Most mushrooms have a stem and a cap. The bottom of the cap sometimes has gills to hold spores, and sometimes holds the spores themselves.

Other websites

Identification

• Mushroom Expert
• MykoWeb
• An Aid to Mushroom Identification, Simon's Rock College
• Online Edible Wild Mushroom Field Guide
• Mushroom Observer (mushroomobserver.org), a collaborative mushroom recording and identification project
• list of field guides to mushrooms Archived 2012-03-05 at the Wayback Machine, from the International Field Guides database

Research associations

• Mushroom Mania; the Newsletter Archived 2010-10-18 at the Wayback Machine
• North American Mycological Association
• International Society for Mushroom Science Archived 2009-11-24 at the Wayback Machine
• Pacific Northwest Fungi Online Journal