Stipe (mycology) puffballs, earthstars, some polypores, jelly fungi, ergots, and smuts. It is often the case that features of the stipe are required to make a positive identification of a mushroom. Such distinguishing characters include: When collecting mushrooms for identification it is critical to maintain all these characters intact by digging the mushroom out of the soil, rather than cutting it off mid-stipe. Stipe (mycology) In mycology, a stipe () is the stem or stalk-like feature supporting the cap of a mushroom. Like all tissues of the mushroom other than the hymenium, the stipe is composed of sterile hyphal tissue. In many
History of biology study of animals and plants. "Natural history" referred to the descriptive aspects of biology, though it also included mineralogy and other non-biological fields; from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance, the unifying framework of natural history was the "scala naturae" or Great Chain of Being. "Natural philosophy" and "natural theology" encompassed the conceptual and metaphysical basis of plant and animal life, dealing with problems of why organisms exist and behave the way they do, though these subjects also included what is now geology, physics, chemistry, and astronomy. Physiology and (botanical) pharmacology were the province of medicine. "Botany", "zoology", and (in