Educator

The Fungi

• Fungi have a crucial role in decomposing dead organisms and organic wastes and releasing their trapped nutrients back into the environment.

• Most plants rely on a partnership with fungi for normal growth, a relationship that may have existed when the first plants took to the land.

• Many animals, including humans, use fungi for food. In turn, many fungi take advantage of their hosts when they act as parasites; humans are sometimes the victims of this kind of relationship.