Anatomy of the Mushroom

Let us start off with what a mushroom is. Mushrooms belong to the fungi kingdom and help break down dead material in nature. It is the soft, spore-producing fruit of a fungus. You can usually find them above ground, growing on soil or decaying plants/trees. The most familiar mushrooms have a stem, a cap, and gills beneath the cap, but their shapes can vary widely, and their pore production is not limited to gills. Some mushrooms are safe to eat and enjoyed as food, but others are poisonous or even deadly if eaten. Besides their roles in nature and cooking, some mushrooms have also been studied for their potential health benefits and have even been documented destroying plastic. They're our friendly and hardworking cleanup crew. Below, I will go into more detail about the different parts of the mushroom, followed by a short video showing the different spore-producing structures.

Simple Breakdown

• The cap: By far having the largest variation, the cap can come in a multitude of colors, textures, shapes, and so on.
• The gills (or ways spores are produced): This is where the spores are released from and can vary, but primarily consists of gills, pores, and teeth.
• The stem: Mushrooms' stems vary; some do not have a stem at all, and some are hollow. It is primarily used to keep the cap up, but some mushrooms may not need it.
• The annulus: Or the ring is not always on a mushroom and is mainly just remnants from the volva, but some do not even show, and some never go away.
• The volva: This is also known as the cup, and it is what you might see on the bottom of a mushroom, sometimes buried underground. This is the protective casing from which the mushroom grew.
• The mycelium: If you were to see the mycelium, you may confuse it for the “roots” of the mushroom; however, that would not be right, as this is the main body and can span underground for hundreds of acres.

Here's a random tidbit on my personal favorite mushroom, the inkcap! This mushroom actually dissolves into a black slime as it ages, which is one reason why it is called the inkcap, because it looks like ink. The primary reason it is called the inkcap is that the goo from it was actually used for... INK! Isn't that neat? The common inkcap is edible when consumed a little after picking, and word of caution there are many types and not all are edible. It is also true that you can not drink any alcohol within three days of eating it before or after, as it can cause disulfiram poisoning.