π³ Plants π Amazing plants
Fungi
π In short
Fungi are living things that aren't plants or animals but a kingdom of their own. They don't have the green color plants use to make food, so they soak up food from things around them. They include the mushrooms we eat, mold and yeast.
π€© Did you know?
- There are more than 100 thousand kinds of fungi.
- Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928.
- Well-known fungi include molds, mushrooms and plant rust.
- The biggest known living thing on Earth is a fungus that spreads underground over a huge area in an American forest.
π Find out more
π The cleaners
Fungi break down dead leaves, wood and the remains of living things, returning them to the soil as food for plants. Without fungi, forests would be piled high with dead leaves!
π Tiny yeast
Yeast is a tiny one-celled fungus that eats sugar and gives off bubbles of gas. That's why we put it in dough: it rises and the bread turns soft.
π‘ Mold
If you leave a piece of damp bread for a few days, fuzzy green or black patches will grow on it. That's mold, a kind of fungus. Never eat moldy food.
π― Medicine from mold
In 1928 the scientist Alexander Fleming noticed that a kind of mold killed bacteria. From it penicillin, the first antibiotic, was made, saving the lives of millions of people.
πΈ More pictures
𧩠Test yourself
1 Why do we put yeast in dough?
2 Which medicine was made from mold?
3 There are more than ?? thousand kinds of fungi.
4 Which picture shows βFungiβ?
π³ Discover more
π· Picture sources: Wikimedia Commons
- BorgQueen Β· CC BY-SA 2.5
- AndrΓ© Lage Freitas Β· CC BY-SA 3.0
