Mushroom

Background:

A mushroom, or toadstool, is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source.

Identifying mushrooms requires a basic understanding of their macroscopic structure. Most are Basidiomycetes and gilled. Their spores, called basidiospores, are produced on the gills and fall in a fine rain of powder from under the caps as a result. At the microscopic level the basidiospores are shot off basidia and then fall between the gills in the dead air space. As a result, for most mushrooms, if the cap is cut off and placed gill-side-down overnight, a powdery impression reflecting the shape of the gills (or pores, or spines, etc.) is formed (when the fruit body is sporulating). The color of the powdery print, called a spore print, is used to help classify mushrooms and can help to identify them. Spore print colors include white (most common), brown, black, purple-brown, pink, yellow, and creamy, but almost never blue, green, or red.

Learn which features spell certain death and which are most palatable in this dataset of mushroom characteristics. How certain can your model be?

Abstract: From Audobon Society Field Guide; mushrooms described in terms of physical characteristics; classification: poisonous or edible

Data Set Characteristics:  

Multivariate

Number of Instances:

8124

Area:

Life

Attribute Characteristics:

Categorical

Number of Attributes:

22

Date Donated

1987-04-27

Associated Tasks:

Classification

Missing Values?

Yes

Number of Web Hits:

207495