Is it Mushroom or Fungi?
It is fungi, a member of the Fungal kingdom. Hyphae grows below the ground, multiple hyphae together is called mycelium. The mushroom is the fruiting body above the ground. When fungi forms a symbiotic partnership with plants this is called arbuscular mycorrhizae[1].
Certain fungi produce a fruiting body, similarly to apples on an apple tree. The fungi fills its hyphal tissues with water and pushes a mushroom above ground, where it grows and releases spores. Picking the mushrooms will not cause the death of the fungi, just as picking apples from the tree will not kill the tree. (The only exception to this is Cordyceps, where the fungi is attached to an insect, and all hyphae are in the insect.)
There are many very interesting looking fungi, for some images of the variety, check out the gallery.
Fungal foraging is an interesting hobby, and as soon as you start you will see mushrooms everywhere! Just take care when picking mushrooms, if you are not certain of the identification, do not eat it until you are certain.
There are more fungi on Earth than there are animals[1]!
Size of Fungi
Hyphae
This image shows hyphae of Fusarium solani visible under the microscope.
It has been stained with lactophenol cotton blue to make it visible under the light microscope.
Mycelium
Mycelium is visible with the naked eye. This mycelium was collected from pulling a mushroom carefully from the ground.
Hyphae combine together to form mycelium branches
Fungal Gills
Mushrooms use either gills or pores to release their spores. Some mushrooms project their spores, others are wind blown or transported through water.
Gills are visible with the naked eye.
The size cotton
This mycelium looks hairy, as it made up of many hyphal strands.
This mycelium is taken from a common puffball mushroom (Lycoperdon perlatum).
It is between 160 and 500 micrometres thick. This is roughly the thickness of sewing cotton to a sewing needle respectively.
How big can they get?
Fungi can be as small as a single yeast cell, which is approx 5 micrometres in diameter [23] to the second largest organism on Earth!
The honey mushroom (Armillaria ostoyae) covers 2,400 acres of forest in America [24].
Mushrooms are visible with the naked eye and can be found in all shapes and sizes.
How Fungi Interact with Plant Partners
Arbuscular fungi – form vesicles, arbuscules, spores and hyphae in the rhizosphere [2]. Nutrients are exchanged through the arbuscules which reside inside the root cells for direct transfer between the fungi and the plants [11].
The arbuscules reach the cortical cells of the host plant through hyphal growth, being attracted by the plant. These cells form a layer between the surface (epidermis) of the root cells and the vascular (conducting) central part of the cell. [10].
The hyphae is able to penetrate the cell wall using polarised exocytosis at the apex. This is a charged area forming at the end of the hyphae whilst it is outside the cell [16].
The tip of the hyphae grows and forms the apex. This is supported through the transport of growth supplies, such as membranes and proteins, through motors along the exoskeleton of the hyphal shaft [16]. This enables the tip of the hyphae to move through the soil, and the cell wall. The soft hyphae is protected by this reinforced protein rich tip.