Skip the introduction and jump to the fungus links: general information | indices | images | basidiomycetes (mushrooms, shelf fungi, rusts & smuts) | ascomycetes (cup fungi, molds, yeasts, lichens) | zygomycetes (bread molds)

Fungi are the great decomposers of the world (along with some help from the bacteria). They are multi-cellular eukaryotes, except for the yeasts which are unicellular. Although often lumped with plants and algae as "flora" (as opposed to "fauna"- animals), fungi are actually not close relatives of the plants at all. All fungi are distinguished by having no motile (free-moving) cells at any point during the life cycle. Fungi are also generally characterized by their method of obtaining energy, namely absorption of nutrients from their surroundings. This sets them apart from plants,which use photosynthesis to obtain energy from the sun, and animals, which actively injest food. Another characteristic of fungi is cell walls enforced with chitin, the same substance found in insect exoskeletons. (For comparison, plant cell walls are made of cellulose, and animal cells do not have cell walls at all.)

Fungi are mainly terrestrial, and grow in filaments called "hyphae" (singular = "hypha"). Tightly packed masses of hyphae called "mycelia" (singular = "mycelium") form larger structures. The most familiar parts of fungi are spore-producing reproductive bodies such as mushrooms, toadstools, "shelves" of fungus on trees, puff balls, blue or green molds, etc. These are the only visible part of many fungi, but the main "body" of the fungus is the hyphae down in the soil or rotten log (or loaf of bread!)

Most people are think of fungi only as mushrooms (or athlete's foot!). But they actually take on a great diversity of forms. One important aspect of fungi is their interaction with other organisims. Many are parasitic. Fungi are responsible for several major plant diseases. But others are symbiotic. Lichens are a symbiotic relationship between a fungus and a green alga or cyanobacterium.

Mycorrhizae ("fungus roots") are a mutually beneficial relationship between the roots of vascular plants and fungi. The very small, fine fungal hyphae are able to absorb minerals in the soil much more efficiently the plant's roots. The plant makes use of the minerals accumulated by the fungus. In exchange, the fungus gets its energy by absorbing carbohydrates that the plant makes via photosynthesis. About four-fifths of vascular plants form mycorrhizae, and many plants cannot survive without their fungal partners.

General Fungus Information

• Introduction to Fungi
  Part of the Berkely Phylogeny of Life site. Information available about the fossil record, life history and ecology, morphology, and systematics.
• Fungi: An Introduction
  A very thorough, mostly text introduction to the fungi. A few images of spores, cultures, cells, etc.
• KINGDOM III: Fungi
  Main fungi page in the Survey of Plant Kingdoms site. Information about taxonomy, phylogenetic diagrams, and images.
• The Fungus Kingdom
  Main fungi page in the Natural Perspectives site.
• Tree of Life: Fungi
  Main page for the fungi in the terrific Tree of Life site. Nice discussion of fungal biology and phylogenetic relationships.
• Fungi
  Brief overview of fungi. This is a free sample of an MCAT review product.
• Higher Fungi
  Quick introduction to the three Divisions of fungi, and life cycle diagrams of representative genera.
• Fungi
  Very brief introduction to fungi and lichens from an on-line biology course.
• Airborne Fungal Spores Homepage
  Although the focus of this site is on allergies, it actually contains quite a bit of biological information, and some nice pictures of spores.
• Mycorrhizae: Plant-Fungus Partners
  Part of the Fun Facts About Fungi site listed separately below.
• Fungi and Mycorrhizae FAQ
  List of FAQs include the difference between fungi and bacteria, and what are mycorrhizae. Emphasis on agriculture.
• PLANTS Project
  A wonderful resource! This searchable plant and fungi database from the USDA lets you query and generate reports for taxonomic information. You can also search for information on wetland plants, endangered and threatened plants, economically important plants, and more.
• Systematic Botany and Mycology- USDA
  "USDA's Systematic Botany and Mycology Laboratory, your source for taxonomic and nomenclatural information on plants and fungi, host-fungus distributions, mycological bibliographies, and information about fungal specimens in the National Fungus Collections."
• U.S. National Fungus Collections Databases
  Instructions from the USDA on how to access these searchable databases.
• Systematic Arrangement of Genera
  A searchable database from the 8th Edition Dictionary of the Fungi.
• Plasmodiophorid Home Page
  A thorough, if a bit technical, discussion of this group of fungi. NOTE: This group of organisims is sometimes classified as protists.
• Zoosporic Fungi Online
  This site suffers from some dead links and a bit of disorganization, but offers some information, links, and a nice glossary.
• Mycotaxon: The Journal of Fungal Systematics
  Recent tables of contents, index of taxa, subscription information.
• Fun Facts About Fungi!
  I just love this site! Nice photos and interesting, plain-language biological information that highlight the diversity of the fungi. Topics include giant puff balls and ant gardens! Great site for kids.
• The Amazing Fungi!
  This colorful and interesting page includes discussion of several fun topics, such as "Soil Fungi, the World's Largest Living Organisms?"
• Fungi Online
  "A home page devoted to fungi, their taxonomy, nomenclature and protection, mushrooms, mushroom-hunting and cooking delicious mushroom dishes." Links to keys, nomenclature, on-line resources- even recipes!
• Tom Volk's Fungi
  This site from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse includes a "fungus of the month feature," a description of the author's research, and a fantastic image library listed separately below.
• MycorWeb
  Topics include: plants on the net, mycology/mycorrhizal resources, DNA databases, molecular ecology, and "about mycorrhizae." This page is a bit slow to load. Information available in French.
• Myko Web
  Photos, links, humor, mushroom shows and clubs, recipes, and a bibliography. Lots of information on the fungi of the San Francisco Bay area.
• MycoPage
  An image archive, mycology newsgroup, mycology web resources, and article abstracts from Italian mycology reveiews (these are in Italian). The image archive is listed separately below.
• Mycelium
  In a sad introductory note, the author explains that he will no longer maintain this award-winning site due to the suicide of his daugher. I include it here because there are still a few interesting links.
• MushRoom Home Page
  A work in progress. There is an ambitious list of items to be added to this page. So far, all that's up is a bit of information about mycological literature and some scanning electron micrographs of spores.

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Fungus Web Indices

• Mycological Resources on the Internet
  The index to end all indices! Categories include: collections, mycologists, labs, discussion groups/newsletters/books, taxonomy, biology, plant pathology, mushroom collecting, education, and more. Or jump right to their (huge) alphabetical index.
• Internet Directory for Botany: Lower Plants
  Lots of links for algae, bryophytes, and fungi.
• Index to the Index of Fungi
  A search engine by species of the Index of Fungi compiled by the International Mycological Institute.

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Fungus Images

• Nathan's Photo Fungi Index
  Impressive collection of photographs, plus a bit of information about each species in the index, and a description of how the photo was created.
• Gateway to Tom Volk's Fungi Images Gopher Site (University of Wisconsin)
  Wow! This is a huge library of fungal images- over 1,000 jpgs! The few I checked out were high quality. This gateway page has an introduction, and a helpful little guide to the Latin endings of fungal taxonomic groups. Images are arranged taxonomically. (This is helpful even if all you want is some taxonomic information!) Or jump straight to the parent directory of the gopher menu. This is the main Fugus directory from the Virtual Foliage Homepage.
• University of Guelph Image Library: Fungi
  Large collectin of photos, particularly for the Basidiomycetes and the Ascomycetes, on an FTP server. Nice images, but some technical difficulties like slow load time and lots of "FTP error" messages.
• The Virtual Foliage Homepage: General Botany Directory, Fungus Subdirectory
  (This is a separate directory from Tom Volk's page. Those folks at U. Wisconsin sure like fungus!) An excellent collection of photos nicely organized in a gopher menu. Part of a much larger collection of images.
• Photomicrographs from Buckman Laboratories
  Images for bacteria, protozoa, algae, fungi, nematodes, and more. Images are well documented.
• Fungi Photos
  Some fungus photos from an amateur mycologist.
• MykoPage Image Archieve
  Part of the MykoPage site described above. Nice collection of jpeg photos with a descriptive blurb about each one.
• The Gallery
  Collection of scanning electron micrographs fromt the Mushroom Information Center site (listed separately under Basidiomycota).
• The SERG Mushroom Gallery
  A long list of jpeg mushroom photos, alphabetical by species, from the Soil Ecology and Restoration Group.

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Division: Basidiomycota

• Basidiomycota
  From the Survey of Plant Kingdoms site.
• Basidiomycetes
  A nice all-text introduction to Basidiomycota from the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh.
• Some Common Basidiomycetes
  Nice descriptions of orders and genera along with images of spores. From the Airborne Fungual Spores Homepage
• Mycological Resources on the Internet: Mushrooms
  "Resources to help you identify, eat, grow and fall in love with mushrooms." Part of the huge Mycological Resources on the Internet index site.
• Mushroom Information Center
  Includes a gallery of scanning electron micrographs, an illustration of a mushroom lifecycle, and a link to a recipes page. Also a few nice photos, some books and articles, and information about growing mushrooms.
• The SERG Mushroom Gallery
  A long list of jpeg mushroom photos, alphabetical by species, from the Soil Ecology and Restoration Group.
• Rusts
  Brief taxonomy and biological information about several rusts which are tree pathogens.

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Division: Ascomycota

• Ascomycota
  From the Survey of Plant Kingdoms site.
• Ascomycetes (including fungi)
  A nice all-text introduction to Ascomycota from the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh.
• Phylogeny of the Ascomycetes
  Orders and higher taxa of Ascomycota plus references from the Phylogenetic Mycology Group
• The Ascomycete Phylogeny Research Group
  A rather technical site from the Sweedish Museaum of Natural History.
• Some Common Ascospores
  Nice descriptions of orders and genera along with images of spores. From the Airborne Fungual Spores Homepage
• Freshwater Ascomycete Database
  "The FRESHWATER ASCOMYCETE DATABASE contains the names of ascomycete species reported from freshwater habitats worldwide. Also included are: (1) taxonomic placement at the ordinal level, (2) substrates, (3) geographical occurrences, and (4) literature citations for species occurrences."
• WWW Virtual Library: Yeast
  Lots of yeast links, many of them technical.
• What are yeasts?
  Excellent all-text discussion of yeast basics. Part of the Yeast Virtual Library.
• Systematic Studies in Discomycetes:Pezizales
  Features "Nomenclatural Revision of F.J. Seaver's North American cup-fungi (operculates)" and "Key: Genera of the Sarcoscyphineae."
• Key to the Species of Fusarium
  Also available in French

  Ascomycota: Lichens

• LichenLand
  Lots of biology and taxonomy- separated for novices and professionals.
• Lichens
  A very good, non-technical explanation of lichens. All text.
• The Lichens
  Thesis papers and links.
• Mosses, Liverworts, and Lichens
  List of citations.
• Lichen
  A scanning electron micrograph.
• The Virtual Foliage Homepage: Fungus Directory, Lichen Subdirectory
  This is a sub-set of Tom Volk's fungus photo collection. Small set of high quality photos. Part of a larger image library from the University of Wisconsin.
• Lichen Information System
  Links to biology, environment, collections, references, systematics, and more.
• Lichens as Bioindicators
  This site offers concise explanations of what are lichens and lichen growth forms. Emphasis is on using lichens in environmental monitoring.
• American Bryological and Lychenological Society
  Lots of links under "internet resources."

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Division: Zygomycota

• Zygomycotina
  From the Survey of Plant Kingdoms site.

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