Fungi Charts, Botany, School Education

Quick Answer: Fungi Charts are botany wall charts that illustrate the structure and reproduction of fungi, from bread mould and yeast to mushrooms, in labelled diagrams. Biology teachers use them to explain how fungi feed, grow and spread by spores.

What the Fungi Series Shows

Fungi are neither plants nor animals: they have no chlorophyll, feed by absorbing food from their surroundings and build their bodies from thread-like hyphae that together form a mycelium. School fungi charts typically make this concrete with Rhizopus or Mucor (bread mould), showing stolons, rhizoids and sporangia; Penicillium with its brush-like conidiophores; yeast reproducing by budding; and Agaricus, the common mushroom, with its cap, gills and stalk.

Reproduction diagrams show how one fungus releases huge numbers of spores, which explains why mould appears on bread, fruit and leather so readily in humid weather. For older students, sheets may add plant-disease fungi such as Albugo (white rust) and Puccinia (wheat rust).

Pairing the chart with a slide of bread mould or a yeast culture under the microscope lets students see real hyphae and budding cells.

Specifications

Applications

• Growing bread mould in class and comparing it with the Rhizopus diagram
• Observing yeast budding under the microscope
• Teaching useful fungi (yeast in baking, Penicillium and antibiotics) and harmful fungi
• Revision of the diversity of lower organisms with algae and bacteria charts

Care & Handling

• If students grow mould for observation, keep the cultures sealed and well away from the fungi charts, since spores can colonise damp paper.
• Store the sheets in a dry, ventilated cupboard; paper kept in humid store rooms is itself prone to mould.
• Hang them out of direct sun.

Why Choose LabEquip

Schools usually buy the fungi charts in a set with the Algae Chart and Bacteria Chart for the lower-organisms unit. Quantities and class levels can be sent through the LabEquip contact page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are fungi not classified as plants?

Fungi lack chlorophyll and cannot make their own food. They absorb nutrients from their surroundings, their cell walls contain chitin rather than cellulose and they store food as glycogen, so they are placed in a kingdom of their own.

What is the difference between hyphae and mycelium?

A hypha is a single thread-like filament. The mycelium is the whole network of hyphae that forms the body of the fungus.

How does yeast reproduce?

Mainly by budding: a small outgrowth forms on the parent cell, receives a nucleus and then separates or stays attached to form a chain. Under a microscope, budding yeast cells are easy for students to find.

How does bread mould spread so quickly?

Rhizopus produces sporangia on upright hyphae, each releasing large numbers of tiny spores that drift in the air. When they land on moist bread in a warm room they germinate and form new mycelium within days.

Which fungi are useful to people?

Yeast is used in baking and fermentation, Penicillium gave the first widely used antibiotic, penicillin, and many mushrooms are edible. Fungi also decompose dead material and recycle nutrients.

What are the parts of a mushroom?

The visible mushroom is the fruiting body: a cap (pileus), gills on its underside that bear spores, a stalk (stipe) and often a ring (annulus). The main mycelium lies hidden in the soil or wood.

Last Updated: September 2026