The terms "mushroom" and "toadstool" go back centuries and were never precisely defined, nor was there consensus on … See more

Identifying what is and is not a mushroom requires a basic understanding of their macroscopic structure. Most are basidiomycetes and gilled. Their spores, called basidiospores, are produced on the gills and fal… See more

Typical mushrooms are the fruit bodies of members of the order Agaricales, whose type genus is Agaricus and type species is the field mushroom, Agaricus campestris. However in modern molecularly defined classifications, … See more

A mushroom develops from a nodule, or pinhead, less than two millimeters in diameter, called a primordium, which is typically found on or near the surface of the substrate. It is formed within the mycelium, the mass o… See more

Many species of mushrooms seemingly appear overnight, growing or expanding rapidly. This phenomenon is the source of several common expressions in the English language including "to mushroom" or "mushroom… See more