DISCUSSION OF WHAT FUNGI ARE

In some ways fungi are like little plants. They have rigid walls like plants and grow attached to their nutrient sources as plants do in soil. But these similarities are deceptive: many scientists think fungi are more closely related to animals than to plants. The topics on this page relate to three aspects of fungi that contribute to their distinctiveness: their physical structure, their reproduction and their activities.

The first topic, "How fungi are constructed", deals with the hypha, the basic unit of nearly all fungi. Hyphae (singular: hypha) occur in a great variety of forms and account for most features of the fungal thallus (body). The second topic, "How fungi reproduce", covers a subject of interest to those who wish to identify fungi as well as those concerned with ecology, plant disease, allergy, wood decay, indoor air quality, etc. The final topic, "How fungi work", relates to the physiological life of fungi; how they obtain their nutrition, how they grow and how they carry out many other important activities in their lives.