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Fungi
KNOWN SPECIES
146,154
6.20% of our world's living things are fungi
CHARACTERISTICS
- cell walls have a tough, semi-transparent substance called chitin
- fungi have tiny, root-like extensions, called hyphae, which secrete enzymes for digesting the remains of plants and animals
SIZE RANGE
less than 0.4 inches to 3.5 sq. miles (1 millimeter to 9 square kilometers)
WHERE THEY LIVE
- everywhere, but mostly on land
- on or in dead and living things
Here are just SOME of the world’s fungi:
woolly chanterelle
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Turbinellus floccosus
the sickener
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Russula emetica
jelly bellies
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Leotia lubrica
witch's butter
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Tremella mesenterica
turkey tails
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Trametes versicolor
Penicillium
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Penicillium chrysogenum
hygroscopic earthstar
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Astraeus hygrometricus
giant puffball
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Langermannia gigantea
Guess what?
The largest known fungus, a honey fungus, is thought to be over 8,000 years old.
Image Credits:
Giant puffball, hygroscopic earthstar, the sickener, turkey tails, woolly chanterelle, Br. Alfred Brousseau, Saint Mary's College/© California Academy of Sciences; jelly bellies, © Holger Krisp/CC BY-3.0; Penicillium chrysogenum, © Mary Gillham Archive Project; witch's butter, © Jean-Pol Grandmont/CC BY-3.0.