This is the phylum that you are probably most familiar – Mushrooms
This is the phylum that you are probably most familiar with because it contains fungi which are generally referred to as gilled fungi or gilled mushrooms.
However, with over 25,000 classified species, it also houses diverse members such as puffballs, shelf fungi, and rusts (which are important plant pathogens). Basidiomycetes are often called club fungi because the cells (basidia) that bear the sexual spores resemble a small club.
Biologically, basidiomycetes follow the same theme as the rest of the fungal kingdom; they are important decomposers, plant pathogens, and symbionts with plants (mycorrhizal). In particular, basidomycetes excel at breaking down large plant cell wall polymers (e.g., lignin found in decaying wood). Morphologically, they range in complexity from microscopic single cells to conspicuous fruiting bodies called basidiocarps. A mushroom that you are likely to see in a forest or at the grocery store is a basidiocarp. Produced during its sexual cycle, it can bear millions of spores on club–shaped basidia located on the surface of its gills. The production of gills underneath the cap is an adaptation that provides a large surface area for spore production.