This type of fungus includes our familiar edible mushroom. Most, but not all gill fungi, have a stem bearing a cap on top. The gills, or lamellae as they are also known, are on the underside of the cap. The spores line the surface of the gills. A single fruiting body may produce as many as 10,000 million spores!
The thickness of the gills, the way they are attached to the stem, and their spacing are all important ways of separating different species. There are in excess of 1,200 different species of gill fungi in Britain.