For quite some time, mushrooms were classified as plants. They were characterized as lower ones without chlorophyll. This happened because such signs of fungi as immobility, ability to grow throughout life, the way of feeding, the presence of a hard shell in a cell, allowed scientists to draw an appropriate conclusion about the belonging of these creatures of nature to lower plants. But in the 1970s and 80s, science separated them into a separate kingdom, numbering more than one hundred thousand species. And some scientists suggest that in fact there are much more types of mushrooms, they just are not all open yet by man. We will try to talk about what are the common signs of mushrooms, what properties are most characteristic for them, and about many other interesting things in this article.
Mycology
The science that studies their life and activity, and what are the common signs of fungi, began to be called mycology. By tradition, it is considered to be a branch of botany (previously, botanists studied mushrooms as plants). Thus, at the beginning of the 21st century, the term “mushrooms” itself became not entirely unambiguous, uniting organisms of various structures and types of nutrition .
Great multitude
The nature of these creatures is truly great diversity, both biological and environmental. Mushrooms can be seen everywhere: on the earth, and in the air, and in water spaces. And according to various expert mycologists, there are from 100 thousand to a million species of mushrooms and mushroom-like organisms. They have become a significant part of the entire ecological systems of the planet. Our whole world is literally permeated by these creatures of nature: from the smallest spores in the air to mycelium, stretching for many kilometers underground. By the way, according to researchers, the largest creature on Earth is a mushroom! What are the common signs of fungi with a rather wide variety of them: from spores that are almost invisible to the eye, to hat fungi-fungi, weighing more than 10 kilograms? Let's analyze together.
Signs characteristic of mushrooms
As already mentioned, mushrooms contain signs of both plants and animals. That is, they are similar to both the animal and plant world, being neither one nor the other. These qualities of mushrooms and mushroom-like organisms made it possible to separate them into a separate kingdom of nature.
Nutrition Methods
Heterotrophs mushrooms . This means that they do not synthesize organic matter, but use it as food in a ready-made form. This brings them closer to animals. Many cap mushrooms, for example, carry out a kind of symbiosis with plants: mutually beneficial cooperation, as a result of which they receive dead organics from plants, eating in this way and decomposing organic substances into inorganic ones, utilizing them. And plants, in turn, receive these minerals from mushrooms as food. So, common signs of fungi include primarily heterotrophy. In general, according to the methods of nutrition, some fungi can be parasites, and even predators. Mushroom parasites invade a foreign body through damage. Sometimes they can even cause the death of their master, and eat what is left of him - dead organics. And predators of the mushroom kingdom catch amoebas and nematodes with the help of special sticky thickenings on gifs.
No chlorophyll
Mushrooms are not capable of photosynthesis, like the same plants. They do not contain chlorophyll in cells. What are the common symptoms of fungi? The composition of their cells includes chitin (characteristic, for example, for arthropod skeletons). And these creatures are also able to store carbohydrates (glycogen), and the final metabolic product from the body - to remove. And these common signs of fungi also bring them closer to animals.
Stillness and growth
Mushrooms are not able to move as animals do. In a sense, they are motionless (of course, if you do not take into account the mycelium, which is able to move, growing underground, sometimes for many kilometers). In addition, they grow and reproduce spores throughout their lives, as many plants do. They also feed on absorption and synthesize hormones with vitamins, which also brings them closer to plants.
Difference in origin
But despite many similarities, scientists have found that fungi and plants come from various groups of ancient microorganisms that lived in ancient times in the aquatic environment. And these two kingdoms differ in their evolutionary path.
What are the common symptoms of mushrooms
With some similarities with plants and animals, mushrooms have only their inherent features. The vegetative body of the body is a mycelium (mycelium), capable of unlimited development of its entire life. The substrate zone is formed in fungi from the so-called hyphae - tubular filamentous structures. They attach the fungus to the substrate where it feeds. Hyphae have a weakly expressed cellular structure. In general, fungi can have both unicellular and multicellular structures, nuclear, limited by shells.
The outer or air zone of many fungi is represented by fruiting bodies (what we are used to, in fact, call mushrooms). With a favorable environment, they exit the mycelium to the outside. Fruit bodies contain spores intended for reproduction. It is known that some cap mushrooms can produce up to several tens of billions of spores for the life of the fruiting body. But fungi can also multiply by mycelium (and in some cases by its cells).