Interesting facts 
about mushrooms

The most important medicinal 
& edible mushrooms:


What are fungi?

For a long time, mushrooms were classified as plants due to a lack of knowledge. Today, we know that, based on genetic and physiological traits, fungi are more closely related to animals than to plants. The main difference from plants is that fungi do not perform photosynthesis and cannot independently produce carbohydrates.

Mushrooms are dependent on organic carbohydrates, built up and provided by other creatures to feed themselves. In the life cycle of organic matter they operate as biodegrading destructors, who disintegrate organic material and dissolve soluble minerals.


The life cycle of mushrooms:

Most people only think of the fruiting bodies, the mushrooms, that grow above ground when they hear the word “mushroom”. However, the much larger part of the fungal organism - known as the mycelium in mushroom cultivation - is found underground.

The mushroom fruiting body usually consists of a stem, cap and lamellae (lamellar mushrooms, such as the button mushroom), tubes (tubular mushrooms such as the porcini mushroom) or pores (pore mushrooms, e.g. reishi). The spores, i.e. the “seeds” of the mushrooms, are formed in the lamellae, tubes or pores. As soon as these are fully mature, they fall out.

Alighting on appropriate nutrient medium under favorable conditions the spores begin germination. Mushrooms produces positive (+) and negative (-) poled spores, which start growth independent of each other. If cells of minus and plus types fuse, a new mushroom mycelium develops. Under convenient conditions this mycelium is able to bear small knots that develop into mushroom fruiting bodies. The mature fruiting bodies release spores; a new reproductive cycle is initiated.