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Revision as of 08:03, 25 May 2003
The term mushroom usually refers to the aboveground fruiting body of fungi with a shaft and a cap, and in extension, refering to the entire fungi of such appearance, but is also used to refer to many visible fungi in general.
Crinipellis perniciosa mushroom thumbnail
larger Crinipellis perniciosa
mushroom image
Mushrooms are used extensively in cooking many cuisines. However, many mushrooms are poisonous, often resembling edible varieties, and eating them can be fatal. Picking your own wild mushrooms is extremely risky and a practice not to be undertaken by amateurs. Mushrooms and other fungi are studied by mycologists. Mycologists refer to agarics and boletes as Basidiomycota, "true mushrooms".
Psilocybin mushrooms possess hallucinogenic properties and are commonly known as "'shrooms". A number of other mushrooms are eaten for their psychoactive effects, including Fly Agaric.
Spores released from the fan-shaped basidiocarp of this inch-wide Crinipellis perniciosa mushroom can infect cacao trees and drastically reduce yields of the beans from which cocoa and chocolate products are made.
A nuclear weapon when detonated produces a mushroom cloud, so named because of its shape.