Mushroom spores are tiny biological particles that enable mushrooms to reproduce, having a purpose similar to that of seeds in the world of plants.
How do spores spread?
Being so small and lightweight, the spores can easily move, unseen, carried by air currents. According to experts found here https://hiddenforestsporestore.com/, some spores are also spread by water, while others cling to animals and other organisms that transport them to other locations.
Almost all mushrooms reproduce asexually, through spores. A mushroom spore is a haploid cell created through mitosis from a parent cell. Spores can turn into new haploid individuals, without having to be fertilized.
And yes, they are alive! In the atmosphere, spores may survive for weeks and even longer, depending on their environment. Spores that land where there is food and moisture have much better chances to germinate. But most spores are not that lucky and they will die. Mushrooms produce so many spores precisely because only a small amount of them will actually survive and produce hyphae.
Mushrooms are not self-sufficient, like plants, and, similarly to representatives of the animal kingdom, they must use already formed organic matter.
Depending on the use of dead organic matter, they feed directly at the expense of living beings, or perform an exchange of mutual interest with them (taking, for example, transformed nutritional elements and giving in return other substances). Fungi are defined as saprophytes, parasites and symbionts.