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Basic knowledge about mushrooms
1. What are mushrooms?
Mushrooms are fungi and taxonomically are close relatives of molds. In fact, their bodies are made of hyphae similar to molds.
What we call the mushroom is the organ which creates the organism’s spores. When the time is right, this organ grows to a size that is visible to the naked eye.
It is believed that there are at least some 5,000 varieties of mushrooms in Japan. However, the classification of Japanese mushrooms is still not complete and the true number of varieties which exist in the country is yet unknown.
In addition, it is believed that only around one third of the mushrooms which can be found in Japan have been given a formal name.
2. Mushroom terminology
（1）Structure of the mushroom body
（2）Structure of gills (Attachment between gills and stalk)
（3）How mushrooms grow
3. How to take a spore print
 （1） Clip the cap from the stalk. |
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 （2）Place the cap on a piece of paper, place a piece of wet cotton on top of the cap. |
 （4）Remove the cap to reveal your completed spore print. |
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 （3）Cover with a cup or similar and let sit overnight. |
With a spore print, you can see features such as the color of the mushroom’s spores.