What are fungi and how are mushrooms different from plants?
The Hidden Kingdom
What are fungi and how are mushrooms different from plants?
Quick — is a mushroom a plant? It sits in the dirt, it doesn't run away, it looks a bit like a tiny umbrella sprouting from the ground. Plot twist: it isn't a plant at all. Mushrooms belong to their own enormous, secretive kingdom called the fungi, and once you meet them properly, you'll never look at a forest floor the same way again.
Here's the first big difference. Plants make their own food. They drink sunlight and turn it into sugar — that's why leaves are green and always tilting toward the sky. Fungi can't do that trick at all. They have no green, no leaves, no sunlight-magic. So instead of cooking their own meals, fungi go looking for food that's already there.
