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| neighbourhood greenery |
I read this fun fact purporting that 'mushrooms are more closely related to humans than to plants'. This prompted me to do some research via Google. I found this article which explains it very well.
It turns out that mushrooms are fungi which help with decomposition in the forest. Life on earth is currently classified into 5 kingdoms: plant, animal, fungi, monera (such as bacteria) and protista (such as algae).
Modern technology has been able to analyze genetic relationships. They discovered that animals and fungi go back to a common ancestor a billion years ago. So mushrooms are not plants. Plants use chlorophyll to make food. Fungi exist on decaying matter, have no leaves, roots or seeds.
Indeed the taste of a portobello mushroom is meaty. It is considerably more difficult to treat a fungal infection as opposed to a bacterial infection. We have a closer genetic link to fungi so the body may not be able to distinguish it as easily as bacteria which has a more simple cell structure.
I don't think I will look at mushrooms the same again. How about you?
