Basidiomycetes

Large class of fungi, with perhaps 12,000 species, which includes mushrooms, toadstools, bracket fungi, puffballs, smuts, and rusts. The thallus, the body of the plant, is a mass of branching threads. The reproductive spores are borne on a club-shaped organ called a basidium (plural basidia), and are called basidiospores. There are usually four on each basidium. The basidia are grouped into conspicuous fruiting bodies, from which they are dispersed by the wind. Mushrooms and brackets are fruiting bodies.