Give one example of edible fungi?
Answers
Answer:
hey mate... here's your answer
there are almost 3000 species of edible fungi. Some examples are truffles,matsutake...etc..
hope it will help you
Answer:
Fungi are a distinct group of organisms more closely related to animals than plants. At present fungi are divided into three separate and distinct kingdoms based on an expanded knowledge of their biochemistry and genetic makeup established especially over the last 30 or so years. It is wrong and misleading to refer to fungi as “plants without chlorophyll” (FAO, 1998a).
Despite fundamental differences, fungi are often classified as plants. Understanding the taxonomic status of fungi has little apparent significance to people collecting and selling wild edible fungi, but it is of critical importance in establishing a sound and robust classification system. This ensures that when two people use the same species name they know that they are referring to the same (edible) fungus.
The classification of fungi with plants has inadvertent practical consequences. It is not always clear whether ethnobotanical studies include wild fungi, as is the case with a study from Turkey (Ertrug, 2000). Ethnomycology is the correct term that indicates fungi are involved. On a similar track, flora refers only to plants. The equivalent term for fungi is mycota. These fungal terms may be unfamiliar but their use helps to identify published information on wild edible fungi clearly that may otherwise be ignored or missed.
Structure and feeding
Fungi come in many shapes, sizes and colours (Plate 1). Macrofungus (plural: macrofungi) is a general category used for species that have a visible (to the unaided eye) structure that produces spores, such as a mushroom or truffle. These visible structures are generically referred to as “fruiting bodies”.
Fungi consist of fine threads known as hyphae, which together form a mycelium, as in the mould growing on a piece of fruit or bread. The cap of a mushroom or a bracket fungus also consists of hyphae, densely packed together to form the fruiting body. Specialized hyphae produce spores that are dispersed in a number of ways. They can be viewed en masse by placing the cap of a mushroom on a piece of white paper and covering it with a glass (Plate 3). The colour, form and way in which spores develop help to identify the fungus.
Wild edible fungi are often referred to generically as wild edible “mushrooms”. This can be confusing for a number of reasons: edible species have different forms, some with gills and some with pores, some with stems and some without (Plate 1). This book prefers the broader term wild edible fungi to reflect the diversity of forms and also to distinguish them clearly from cultivated mushrooms (Box 1).
How fungi feed
Fungi are dependent on dead and living material for their growth. They obtain their nutrients in three basic ways:
• SAPROBIC3 – growing on dead organic matter;
• SYMBIOTIC – growing in association with other organisms;
• PATHOGENIC or PARASITIC – causing harm to another organism.
The majority of wild edible fungi species are symbiotic and form mycorrhizas with trees (see below). Saprobic edible fungi are also collected from the wild but they are best known and most widely valued in their cultivated forms. Plant pathogenic fungi cause diseases of plants and a small number of these microfungi are eaten in the form of infected host material (Plate 2). The different modes of feeding are shown in Plate 2 and described briefly below.