Mushroom

A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, hence the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi that have a stem , a cap  and  or pores on the underside of the cap. These pores or gills produce microscopic spores that help the fungus spread across the ground or its occupant surface.

"Mushroom" describes a variety of gulled fungi, with or without stems, and the term is used even more generally, to describe both the fleshy fruiting bodies of some and the woody or leathery fruiting bodies of some Basidiomycot, depending upon the context of the word.

Forms deviating from the standard morphology usually have more specific names, such as "puffball", "stinker", and "morel", and gilled mushrooms themselves are often called "agarics" in reference to their similarity to Agaricusor their place Agaricales. By extension, the term "mushroom" can also designate the entire fungus when in culture; the thallus (called a mycelium|) of species forming the fruiting bodies called mushrooms; or the species itself.

Classification

Typical mushrooms are the fruit bodies of members of the order Allegorical, whose type genus is Agaricus and type species is the field mushroom, Agaricus campers. However, in modern molecularly defined classifications, not all members of the order Agaricales produce mushroom fruit bodies, and many other gilled fungi, collectively called mushrooms, occur in other orders of the class Agaricomycetes. For example, chanterelles are in the Cantharellales, false chanterelles such as Gomphus are in the Gomphales, milk mushrooms (Lactarius) and russulas (Russula), as well as Lentinellus, are in the Russulales, while the tough, leathery genera Lentinus and Panus are among the Polyporales, but Neolentinus is in the Gloeophyllales, and the little pin-mushroom genus, Rickenella, along with similar genera, are in the Hymenochaetales.

Within the main body of mushrooms, in the Agaricales, are common fungi like the common fairy-ring mushroom (Marasmius oreades), shiitake, enoki, oyster mushrooms, fly agarics, and other amanitas, magic mushrooms like species of Psilocybe, paddy straw mushrooms, shaggy manes, etc.

Medicinal properties

Some mushrooms or extracts are used or studied as possible treatments for diseases, such as cardiovascular disorders. Some mushroom materials, including polysaccharides, glycoproteins and proteogly can are under basic research for their potential to modulate immune system responses and inhibit tumor growth, whereas other isolates show potential antiviral, antibacterial,anti parasitic, anti-inflammatory, and anti diabetic properties in preliminary studies.^[Currently, several extracts have widespread use in Japan, Korea and China, as adjuncts to radiation treatments and chemotherapy, even though clinical evidence of efficacy in humans has not been confirmed.

Historically, mushrooms have long been thought to hold medicinal value, especially in traditional n China's They have been studied in modern medical research since the 1960s, where most studies use extracts, rather than whole mushrooms. Only a few specific extracts have been tested for efficacy in laboratory research. Polysaccharide and lentinan are among extracts best understood from in vitro research, animal models such as mice, or early-stage human pilot studies.

Other uses

Mushrooms can be used for dyeing wool and other natural fibers. The chromophores of mushroom dyes are organic compounds and produce strong and vivid colors, and all colors of the spectrum can be achieved with mushroom dyes. Before the invention of synthetic dyes, mushrooms were the source of many textile dyes.

Some fungi, types of polypores loosely called mushrooms, have been used as fire starters (known as tinder fungi).

Mushrooms and other fungi play a role in the development of new biological remediation techniques (e.g., using mycorrhizae  to spur plant growth) and filtration technologies (e.g. using fungi to lower bacterial levels in contaminated water).