Fungi are living organisms that are distantly
related to plants, and more closely related to animals, but rather
different from either of those groups. Fungi are not plants.
Living things are organized for study into large, basic groups called kingdoms.
Fungi were listed in the Plant Kingdom for many years. It is a hidden kingdom. The part of the fungus that we see is only the
“fruit” of the organism. The living body of the fungus is a mycelium
made out of a web of tiny filaments called hyphae. Fungi feed by absorbing nutrients from the organic material in which they live.
Fungi do not have stomachs. They must digest their food before it can pass
through the cell wall into the hyphae. Hyphae secrete acids and enzymes that
break the surrounding organic material down into simple molecules they can
easily absorb.
