Chapter 31.3, Problem 3CC

Summary Introduction

To determine: Food adaptations in fungi if they had colonized land before plants.

Concept introduction: The dominant components of the terrestrial ecosystem are plants. The colonization of the land by plants occurred as they adopted the mode of nutrition as photosynthetic. The fungi kingdom has huge biodiversity and they are generally saprophytes orhave parasitic mode of nutrition. Fungi are present wherever the food source is available to them (either in mutual relationship or they feed on dead and decaying matter of plants and animals).