A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground, on soil, or on its food source. Toadstool generally denotes one poisonous to humans.
Many species of mushrooms seemingly appear overnight, growing or expanding rapidly. This phenomenon is the source of several common expressions in the English language including "to mushroom" or "mushrooming" (expanding rapidly in size or scope) and "to pop up like a mushroom" (to appear unexpectedly and quickly). In reality, all species of mushrooms take several days to form primordial mushroom fruit bodies, though they do expand rapidly by the absorption of fluids.
Gallery[]
A fly agaric.
Wood air mushrooms.
Trivia[]
- While mushrooms generally reproduce through their spores, Kino's secret pages in the official translation of the manga states that the mushroom-like Matango Liminal species requiere a completelly different set of conditions in order to produce offsprings.
- When Kino accidentally contaminated the Kurusu House with their spores in Chapter 45, mushrooms of various sizes and shapes appeared in many places within the house. These mushrooms, as well as the complete dungeon environment, were only part of the hallucinations triggered by Kino's spores and disappeared as soon as the house was decontaminated, since they were not really real.
- For a long time, fungi were counted in the systematics of plants and this belief still persists among many people to this day, although it has now been scientifically proven that mushrooms belong to their own systematics and are more related to animals. This is also addressed in the manga series because, according to Kino's secrets page, Matangos are classified in the systematics of plant-like liminals such as Dryads, although this classification seems strange since Matangos are mushroom-like.
- Although certain species of mushrooms are safe for human consumption, it can be extremely easy for people to accidentally come into contact with a dangerous mushroom, particularly if said mushroom looks almost exactly like a harmless one. An infamous example is the American Death Cap, which despite physically appearing benign and harmless is so toxic that just breathing in the spores will render a grown adult horrendously ill.