Are fungi considered plants?

Question

A number of spells and abilities interact with plants specifically. For example, the Plant Growth spell does the following:

If you cast this spell using 1 action, choose a point within range. All normal plants in a 100-foot radius centered on that point become thick and overgrown. A creature moving through the area must spend 4 feet of Movement for every 1 foot it moves.

Similarly, the Land Druid & Ranger feature Land's Stride does the following:

You can also pass through nonmagical plants without being slowed by them and without taking damage from them if they have thorns, spines, or a similar hazard.

For the purpose of these abilities, are fungi classified as plants?

Does this answer your question? Is a mushroom a plant for the purposes of Speak With Plants? — SilentAxe, Dec 05 '21 at 09:36
Related question discussing whether barnacles, tubeworms, and seaweed can be considered plants, for the purposes of spell targeting. — Kirt, Dec 05 '21 at 21:24

Neil Slater · Accepted Answer · 2021-12-05T09:50:51.337

You will find that all animated mushroom and fungus creatures from 5E monster manual are counted as plant creatures, for example the violet fungus, shriekers, gas spores, myconids. That means that spells and effects that interact with plant creatures, will affect them.

Plant creatures are usually affected separately to plants. So, for example Plant Growth should not affect a myconid, because it is not a "normal" plant. That means this is not a direct answer to your question.

However, I think we can take this grouping of plants and fungi to be the standard approach across D&D rules. It also fits with other classical groupings used in fantasy, such as the four elements of air, earth, fire, water. The grouping flora includes plants and fungi.

So, in short, yes it should be fine to consider normal mushrooms and toadstools as subjects for game effects like Plant Growth and Land's Stride.

Are fungi considered plants?

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