Fruiting body
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Image:Backlit mushroom.jpg In fungi, the fruiting body (also known as sporocarp) is a multicellular structure on which spore-producing structures, such as basidia or asci, are borne. The fruiting body is part of the sexual phase of a fungal life cycle, with the rest of the life cycle being characterized by vegetative mycelial growth. Fruiting bodies that are visible to the naked eye, especially fruiting bodies of a more or less agaricoid morphology, are often referred to as mushrooms.
If the spores are borne on the club-like cells called basidia, the fruiting body can be called a basidiocarp (or basidioma, plural: basidiomata); if they are in sac-like asci, the fruiting body is an ascocarp (or ascoma, plural: ascomata).
Multicellular spore-producing structures on fungus-like organisms, such as slime molds, and some colonial bacteria, such as the myxobacteria, are also called "fruiting bodies".
Fruiting bodies are termed epigeous if they grow on the ground, as with ordinary mushrooms, whilst ones which grow underground, such as truffles are hypogeous.
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