How does mushroom reproduce?
A spore is much like a seed. It contains all of the genetic information that will grow and produce the fruit of the mushroom. The mushroom is the sex organ of the mushroom that will produce spores or “seeds”. Spores have four combinations of sexes. Not all intersecting threads are able to mate. Not all matings will produce fertile mycelia. Spores form as swellings on one or more subtending hypha in the soil or in roots. These structures contain lipids, cytoplasm and many nuclei. Spores usually develop thick walls with more than one layer and can function as propagules. Spores may be aggregated into groups called sporocarps. Sporocarps may contain specialized hyphae and can be encased in an outer layer (peridium). Spores apparently form when nutrients are remobilised from roots where associations are senescing. They function as storage structures, resting stages and propagules. Spores may form specialized germination structures, or hyphae may emerge through the subtending hyphae or grow
