A mushroom is an above-ground fruiting body (that is, a spore-producing structure) of a fungus, having a shaft and a cap.

By extension, it designates the entire fungus producing the fruiting body of such appearance, the former consisting of a network (called the mycelium) of filaments or hyphae.

In a much broader sense, mushroom is applied to any visible fungus, or especially the fruiting body of any fungus, with the mycelium usually being hidden under bark, ground, rotten wood, leaves, etc.

The main types of mushrooms are agarics (the button mushroom, the most common mushroom eaten in many western countries), boletes, chanterelles, tooth fungi, polypores, puffballs, jelly fungi, coral fungi, bracket fungi, stinkhorns, and cup fungi..

For more information about the topic Mushroom, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:

Gilled mushrooms — The order Agaricales, also known as gilled mushrooms (for their distinctive gills), or euagarics, contains some of the most familiar types of ...  > read more

Puffball — A puffball is a member of any of a number of groups of fungus in the division Basidiomycota. Puffballs are common in meadows and woods and on heaths ...  > read more

Fungus — A fungus (plural fungi) is a eukaryotic organism that digests its food externally and absorbs the nutrient molecules into its cells. Fungi are very ...  > read more

Birch bracket — Birch Bracket (Piptoporus betulinus - also known as Razor Strop) is one of the most common polyporous bracket fungi and, as the name suggests, grows ...  > read more

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