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The English word fungus is directly adopted from the Latin fungus (mushroom), used in the writings of Horace and Pliny. [10] This in turn is derived from the Greek word sphongos (σφόγγος 'sponge'), which refers to the macroscopic structures and morphology of mushrooms and molds; [11] the root is also used in other languages, such as the German Schwamm ('sponge') and Schimmel ('mold').
Additionally, fungi typically grow in mixed colonies and sporulate amongst each other. These facts have made it very difficult to link the various states of the same fungus. Fungi that are not known to produce a teleomorph were historically placed into an artificial phylum, the "Deuteromycota," also known as "fungi imperfecti," simply for ...
The Fungi are classified as a kingdom that is separate from plants and animals. The discipline of biology devoted to the study of fungi is known as mycology or fungal biology, which is historically regarded as a branch of botany , even though genetic studies have shown that fungi are more closely related to animals than to plants.
In certain areas of the temperate northern hemisphere where fungi have been well studied, the ratio of vascular plant to fungal species is about 6 to 1. [2] This suggests that there may be as many as 120,000 species of fungi within the United States, surpassing the 29,000 U.S. species of microfungi estimated based on collection and literature ...
The prospect of treating contaminated soils with nematode pathogenic fungi such as H. anguillulae has shown potential to reduce nematode populations. [9] However, the fungus does not persist in soil following the elimination of nematode populations, potentially limiting its use as a sustainable biocontrol agent.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to fungi and mycology: . Fungi – "Fungi" is plural for "fungus". A fungus is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes unicellular microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as multicellular fungi that produce familiar fruiting forms known as mushrooms.
Although Fungi imperfecti/Deuteromycota is no longer formally accepted as a taxon, many of the fungi it included have yet to find a place in modern fungal classification. This is because most fungi are classified based on characteristics of the fruiting bodies and spores produced during sexual reproduction, and members of the Deuteromycota have ...
As now classified, the subphyla join and also cut across various obsolete taxonomic groups (see below) previously commonly used to describe Basidiomycota. According to a 2008 estimate, Basidiomycota comprise three subphyla (including six unassigned classes) 16 classes, 52 orders, 177 families, 1,589 genera, and 31,515 species. [ 6 ]