Unlike true plants, fungi have no green chlorophyll, and cannot trap sunlight to help make food. Instead, many live as parasites on green plants or on animals. Others feed on dead or decaying plant and animal bodies. Yeasts are fungi that consist of just one cell. Most fungi, though, are made up of a mass of branching threads spreading over, or through, their food. These threads have a wall made of chitin, a tough material like that of insect skins. Every so often the fungus sends up a “fruiting body” which contains spores. Spores are released into the air and settle to grow into new fungi, Fruiting bodies may be simple, like the ‘pin-heads’ on bread mold, or they may be large like the toadstools and mushrooms.

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