The difference between mushrooms vs fungus vs mold
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A mushroom is part of a fungus, in particular it’s the fruiting body that forms and releases spores to reproduce. The majority of the mushroom is a network of thin threads called hyphae which form a mass in the substrate, often soil, called the mycelium. The mycelium is what searches for food and breaks it down, produces sugars, etc, the mushroom is just the temporary reproductive organ of the fungal network itself. Mold is another form of fungus that forms much smaller fruiting bodies, but mold/ mushroom = fungus.
Fungi are an entire kingdom multi-cellular organisms that are distinct from plants and animals. Molds are a type of fungus. Mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of some types of fungus that emit spores that the fungus uses to reproduce.
So in short, fungus is a classification of an entire group of organisms, molds certain species of fungi, and mushrooms are the physical part of certain fungi.
Mold is a type of fungus. A mushroom is a reproductive structure that some fungi grow. As it lives the fungus is a network of mycelia embedded in a substrate such as soil, logs, animal carcass, or in the case of mold that spaghetti you put in your fridge a month ago. Throw that out dude, it’s just going to get worse.
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