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Cultivating fungi can yield foods (which include mostly mushrooms), medicine, construction materials and other products. A mushroom farm is involved in the business of growing fungi. The word is also commonly used to refer to the practice of cultivation of fungi by animals such as leafcutter ants, termites, ambrosia beetles, and marsh periwinkles.
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').
Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their taxonomy, genetics, biochemical properties, and use by humans. [1] Fungi can be a source of tinder, food, traditional medicine, as well as entheogens, poison, and infection.
The fungi of the genera Penicillium and Aspergillus also produce ergot alkaloids, notably some isolates of the human pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus, [21] and have been isolated from plants in the family Convolvulaceae, of which morning glory is best known. The causative agents of most ergot poisonings are the ergot alkaloid class of fungal ...
Collybia grow on dead mushrooms. The fungal genus, Trichoderma produces enzymes such as chitinases which degrade the cell walls of other fungi. [15] They are able to detect other fungi and grow towards them, they then bind to the hyphae of other fungi using lectins on the host fungi as a receptor, forming an appressorium.
Often this fungus is found with a multitude of separate "digits", but at times the individual parts will be fused together. In maturity, the fruiting bodies can be 3–10 centimetres (1 + 1 ⁄ 4 –4 inches) tall, externally colored black or brown, [3] sometimes with shades of blue or green. It is white on the inside, with a blackened dotted ...
Fungi have appeared, too, from time to time, in literature and art. Fungi create harm by spoiling food, destroying timber, and by causing diseases of crops, livestock, and humans. Fungi, mainly moulds like Penicillium and Aspergillus, spoil many stored foods. Fungi cause the majority of plant diseases, which in turn cause serious economic losses.
Trametes versicolor growing on a rotting log. Bracket fungi often grow in semi-circular shapes, looking like trees or wood. They can be parasitic, saprotrophic, or both. One of the more common genera, Ganoderma, can grow large thick shelves that may contribute to the death of the tree, and then feed off the wood for years after. Their hardiness ...