Many live symbiotically with algae as lichens. The division Basidiomycota, or club fungi, includes mushrooms, shelf fungi, puffballs, and stinkhorns. Are important decomposers of wood and other plant material. Saprobic basidiomycetes can decompose the complex polymer lignin, an abundant component of wood. Include mycorrhiza-forming mutualists and plant parasites.
Many shelf fungi are tree parasites that function later as saprobes after the trees die.
Include mushroom-forming fungi, only a few of which are strictly parasitic. About half are saprobic and the other half form mycorrhizae. Include the rusts and smuts, which are plant parasites. Basidiomycete life cycles are characterized by a long-lived dikaryotic mycelium that reproduces sexually by producing fruiting bodies called basidiocarps . Refer to Campbell, Figure 28.7 for the life cycle of a mushroom-forming basidiomycete.