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Finally, fungi do not have a Figure 4 – A rotting log can be a good
vascular system, the system used location for finding fungi
to transport water and nutrients in Fungus Body Parts
plants, but do have hyphae, a
structure you will learn about in Fungi have a cell wall. The cell
the next section. wall acts as protection for the cells
of the fungi from destruction.
Although mold and mushrooms are
easy to see, most fungi are a lot Fungi also have hyphae. These
harder to see. Some are so small are thread-like structures which
they can only be seen with a are connected to each other and
microscope. bunched up. Bunched up hyphae
are called mycelium. Mold on a
piece of food or on a rotting piece
of wood are really mycelia (that’s
the plural of mycelium.
Figure 3 – This microscopic fungus can
cause diseases.
Others are big enough to see, but
live in places that make them hard
to find. For example, some fungi Figure 5 – These rotting strawberries are
live deep in the soil, in decaying covered with Rhizopus mycelium.
logs, inside plants and animals, or Mycelia absorb nutrients from
even inside or on top of other other organisms they are living in
fungi! or on, called hosts. Fungi also
have special structures for
reproduction. One example of this
is a fruiting body. Fruiting bodies
produce spores. These are the
basic unit of reproduction in fungi,
and will be discussed later in this
section.
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