Science of Mushrooms

A mushroom is the fleshy spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. Like all fungi mushrooms are not plants and do not undergo photosynthesis. The standard for the name “mushroom” is the cultivated white button mushroom Agaricus bisporus; hence the word “mushroom” is most often applied to those fungi (Basidiomycota Agaricomycetes) that have a stem (stipe) a cap (pileus) and gills (lamellae sing. lamella) or pores on the underside of the cap.