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Fungi is neither a plant nor an animal. They make up their very own kingdom. Fungi has characteristics of animals and plants. Like animals, they eat other organisms for nutrition because they can t produce their own food, but like plants, some types of fungi let fate take its course and throw their spores out to float along and find a home.
People with allergies can certainly identify with that. Although the kingdom has not been explored very thoroughly, it has many amazing things in it. Fungi is very diverse in size. They can be microscopic or span up to 30 acres of land, and there is an estimated 1. 5 million fungi species on Earth to date.
Fungi has some different ways that it spreads itself around. In some kinds, it is ingested by any herbivore and it travels through the animal s intestines, passes through, and then cultivates in the animal s droppings. Other kinds release spores that are then carried to the surface by termites. A type of ant, the leaf cutter, eats fungi. The female southern pine beetle has protected pouches in which she stores the fungi and as she tunnels through the bark of trees she releases the fungi which become the food that keeps the beetle larvae alive. Fungus is both beneficial and harmful to the other kingdoms.
It causes athlete s foot, jock itch, yeast infections, and allergies in humans. One type of fungi, the Cordyceps myrmecophila, impede itself in an ant and feeds off of its dying body. Another kind, the Arthrobotrys uses its filaments, also called hyphae, to snag wandering nematode worms on their travels through the ground. On the other hand, fungus and other species can work together. It provides humans with very important medicines such as penicillin and most plants actually depend on it to supply minerals vital to their growth. One kind of fungus can even decompose wood chips without the use of any harsh chemicals.
Whether they are deadly predators or simple decomposer's or even a tasty treat, fungi is very important to life on Earth, and is a field that should be researched more thoroughly. The topic that I picked, fungus, I chose because I did not really know a lot about the subject and I thought it would be good to learn more. Usually when I think of fungus, mushrooms come to mind, but it turns out that there is a whole lot more to it than just something I eat on my salad. For instance, I learned that fungus is not part of another kingdom, it is actually a kingdom in itself. I just figured that it was a plant because it grows from the ground. Another thing that I found out is that fungus is the cause of a bunch of illnesses like athlete s foot and allergies, some things that I thought people just got.
I think that this new information I found out about the subject will be useful to me because now I can say that I know how all the illnesses happen and how fungus reproduces. I can t say that I ll ever need to know anything about fungus, but in case I ever do, I ll be prepared.
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Research essay sample on Athlete Foot Fungi Fungus
