A Little Branch of Life
Plant or Fungus?

The world can be a complex place - the tree of life below is one representation of the very broadest groups of life that have been classified. To make things a little easier we are only going to be looking at two small branches of this tree, twigs really, representing plants and fungi. Even within these groups we are limited to only those living near Mantario that are large enough to see and enjoy with out special equipment. The red arrows point to the larger groups that might be discussed or seen during the week with some possible mention of the groups identified by pink arrows

How can you tell if something is a plant or fungus during the Mantario week? A few simple observations are all that are needed:

• Can you see it without squinting or using a magnifyer of some type.
• Does it stay in one place (except when dug up, blown by the wind, washed away in a flood, rolled down a hill, or just falling over). Since we are in Mantario we can just ignore those pesky Socratea exorrhiza or Walking Palms since they are only found in tropical areas.
• It is alive (Oy! now there is a difficult concept that has troubled philosphers throughout history and I am just throwing out there with no explanation). To make things simpler - it grows, reproduces, and is softer than a rock.

I know this might include some very slothful animals but usually if you poke those a couple of times, or turn off the television, they wake up, complain, and move to another couch.

Now that we know what we might be looking at I am going to complicate things just a little by telling you that plants and fungi can be broken down into several more managable groups. When trying to work out exactly what you are looking at (or trying to explain to the triage nurse what it was that you ate) these broad groups will help give you a starting point and might determine which book to pickup and look through first.

Is it a Plant or Fungus?

Follow the branches in the simple tree below to identify the broad group. This tree is very simplified since there are [uncommon] exceptions at each step.