Mushroom

A mushroom is the spore-producing fruiting body of a fungus, often formed from a hidden network of hyphae. The word can also mean the fungus that produces it.

Mycelium: The branching network of fungal filaments that grows through a food source or substrate. Mushrooms emerge from this usually hidden network.
Hymenium: The fertile layer of a fungus where spore-producing cells develop. This layer covers gills, pores, or other surfaces that release spores.
Edible mushroom: A mushroom regarded as safe and suitable for human consumption when correctly identified and prepared. Many species are harvested or cultivated as food.
Toadstool: An informal name often applied to a poisonous or inedible mushroom, without a precise scientific definition. The label suggests a sharp distinction from mushrooms that taxonomy does not support.
Hypha: A threadlike fungal filament that grows at its tip and can form a mycelium. Hyphae build the mycelium and much of a mushroom’s structure.
Gills (mycology): Thin radiating plates beneath a mushroom cap that bear spore-producing tissue. Gills provide a large surface for producing and releasing spores.
Mushroom cultivation: The controlled production of mushrooms using prepared substrates and managed growing conditions. Cultivation turns fungal growth and fruiting into a food-production practice.
Mold: A growth form of fungi characterized by networks of microscopic filaments, often visible as fuzzy colonies. Molds usually reproduce without the conspicuous fruiting bodies commonly called mushrooms.
Basidium: A spore-producing cell found in many fungi in the phylum Basidiomycota. In many familiar mushrooms, basidia produce spores on the gills or other fertile surfaces.
Pore (mycology): An opening in the spore-bearing surface of a mushroom with a porous underside. In pore-bearing mushrooms, spores form on the lining inside these openings.

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