Mushrooms are weird. Honestly, if you really stop to think about it, fungi are probably the strangest life forms on this entire planet. They aren't plants, they aren't animals, and they definitely aren't "just vegetables" like the grocery store aisle implies. They breathe oxygen like we do, but they grow in the dirt. Most people looking for a types of fungus list are usually just thinking about the white buttons on their pizza or maybe that annoying patch of athlete's foot they can't get rid of. But the reality is so much more massive. We’re talking about an entire kingdom of life that holds the ecosystem together while simultaneously being able to heal us or, in some cases, literally liquefy our insides.
Estimates on how many species actually exist are all over the place. Some mycologists like the legendary Paul Stamets suggest there could be millions, yet we’ve only formally described a tiny fraction of them. It’s a literal hidden universe.
The Big Players: Basidiomycota and Ascomycota
When you think of a "fungus," you're almost certainly picturing a member of the Basidiomycota phylum. These are the show-offs. They produce those classic umbrella-shaped mushrooms we see in the woods. They have gills, pores, or teeth under their caps where they drop billions of spores into the wind.
Take the Amanita muscaria. You know the one—bright red with white spots, the "Mario mushroom." It’s iconic, beautiful, and also neurotoxic. It’s a perfect example of how complex this kingdom is. Then you have the Agaricus bisporus. That’s a fancy name for the common button mushroom, the cremini, and the portobello. Fun fact: those are all the exact same species, just harvested at different ages. It’s wild how much marketing goes into selling us the same fungus at three different price points.
Then there’s the Ascomycota. This group is massive. It includes everything from the highly prized morel mushrooms that foragers risk their lives for in the spring to the yeast that makes your bread rise and your beer fizzy. They’re called "sac fungi" because their spores are produced in a microscopic sac-like structure called an ascus. Without these guys, we wouldn’t have penicillin. Alexander Fleming basically stumbled onto Penicillium chrysogenum by accident because he was messy with his petri dishes, and that single mold changed the course of human history.
✨ Don't miss: Williams Sonoma Deer Park IL: What Most People Get Wrong About This Kitchen Icon
The Weird Stuff: Beyond the Grocery Store
If we’re building a real types of fungus list, we have to talk about the stuff that looks like it’s from another planet. Have you ever seen a Stinkhorn? They look like something out of a horror movie and smell like rotting meat to attract flies. The flies land on the slimy spore mass, get it stuck to their legs, and fly away to start the cycle over. It's gross. It's brilliant.
And then there are the Cordyceps. If you’ve played The Last of Us, you know the vibe, but the real-life version is strictly for insects. These entomopathogenic fungi hijack the brains of ants or caterpillars, force them to climb to a high point, and then burst out of their heads to spread spores. Nature is metal. In traditional Chinese medicine, Ophiocordyceps sinensis (the caterpillar fungus) is worth more than its weight in gold. People literally call it "Himalayan Viagra."
Mycorrhizal Fungi: The Earth’s Internet
This is arguably the most important type of fungus on the planet, even if you never see it. Mycorrhizae aren't a single species but a functional group. They form a symbiotic relationship with plant roots. The fungus gives the tree minerals and water it can’t reach on its own, and in exchange, the tree pumps the fungus full of sugar it made through photosynthesis.
Dr. Suzanne Simard’s research into the "Wood Wide Web" showed that these fungi actually allow trees to talk to each other. They send warning signals about pests or even funnel nutrients to younger "mother" trees' offspring. Without this specific type of fungus, our forests would likely collapse.
🔗 Read more: Finding the most affordable way to live when everything feels too expensive
The Stuff That Lives on You (and in You)
We have to get a bit uncomfortable for a second. Fungi aren't just in the forest; they are on your skin right now. Dermatophytes are the group responsible for things like ringworm, jock itch, and nail fungus. They feed on keratin. It’s not a sign of being "dirty"—it’s just biology. These fungi love warm, damp environments.
Then you have Candida albicans. It lives naturally in your gut and mouth. Usually, your immune system and "good" bacteria keep it in check. But when things get out of whack—say, after a heavy round of antibiotics—it can overgrow and cause thrush or yeast infections. It’s a delicate balance.
Mold: The Silent Roommate
Mold is just a way of describing fungi that grow in multicellular filaments called hyphae. If you see green fuzz on your bread, you’re looking at Rhizopus stolonifer. If you see black spots in a damp bathroom, it might be Stachybotrys chartarum.
Not all mold is bad, though. Botrytis cinerea, also known as "noble rot," is a type of fungus that winegrowers actually want. It shrivels grapes and concentrates the sugars, leading to some of the most expensive dessert wines in the world, like Sauternes.
💡 You might also like: Executive desk with drawers: Why your home office setup is probably failing you
A Practical Breakdown of the Types of Fungus List
To make sense of this, you can generally categorize them by how they get their food. They don't eat like we do; they absorb.
- Saprobes: These are the decomposers. They eat dead stuff. Fallen logs, dead leaves, that orange in the back of your fridge. They turn waste back into soil.
- Parasites: They take without giving back. This includes the Cordyceps mentioned earlier and the fungi that cause Dutch Elm Disease, which wiped out millions of trees across North America.
- Mutualists: The team players. Lichens are a great example. A lichen isn't one organism; it's a fungus and an alga (or cyanobacteria) living in a permanent partnership. The fungus provides the structure, and the alga provides the food.
Why Mycology is the Future
We are currently in a "fungal renaissance." Researchers are using mycelium (the root-like structure of fungi) to grow "leather" for clothes, packaging materials that replace Styrofoam, and even bricks for construction. There are even species of Aspergillus and Pestalotiopsis that can literally eat plastic. We are looking at a future where a types of fungus list might include "house-building fungi" or "ocean-cleaning fungi."
If you’re interested in foraging, the first rule is simple: Never eat anything you cannot identify with 100% certainty. There are "old foragers" and "bold foragers," but there are very few "old, bold foragers." Some species, like the Destroying Angel (Amanita bisporigera), look remarkably like edible mushrooms but will shut down your liver within days.
Actionable Next Steps for Fungal Exploration
If you want to move beyond just reading about them and start seeing them, here is how to start:
- Get a local field guide. Don't rely on an app. Apps are notoriously bad at identifying lookalikes that can be toxic. A physical book tailored to your specific region (like "Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest") is your best friend.
- Look down, but also up. Many people only look at the ground. Some of the most interesting polypores (shelf fungi) grow high up on dying trees.
- Join a local mycological society. Every major city usually has a group of "fungi nerds" who do weekend "forays." It’s the fastest way to learn because you have experts holding the specimen in their hand and showing you exactly what to look for.
- Start a grow kit. You can buy oyster mushroom kits online for twenty bucks. It’s a low-stakes way to watch the lifecycle of a fungus happen in your kitchen. It’s fascinating to see how fast they grow—sometimes doubling in size in 24 hours.
Fungi are the beginning and the end of everything. they break down the old to make room for the new. Whether you’re looking at them under a microscope or through a camera lens in the woods, they deserve a lot more respect than we usually give them.