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The sporocarp (also known as fruiting body, fruit body or fruitbody) of fungi is a multicellular structure on which Sporangium, such as Basidium or ascus, are borne. The fruitbody is part of the sexual phase of a fungal life cycle, while the rest of the life cycle is characterized by Vegetation mycelial growth and asexual spore production.
The sporocarp of a Basidiomycota is known as a basidiocarp or basidiome, while the fruitbody of an Ascomycota is known as an ascocarp. Many shapes and morphologies are found in both basidiocarps and ascocarps; these features play an important role in the identification and taxonomy of fungi.
Fruitbodies are termed Epigeal if they grow on the ground, while those that grow underground are hypogeous. Epigeous sporocarps that are visible to the naked eye, especially fruitbodies of a more or less morphology, are often called . Epigeous sporocarps have mycelia that extend underground far beyond the mother sporocarp. There is a wider distribution of mycelia underground than sporocarps above ground. Hypogeous fungi are usually called or . There is evidence that hypogeous fungi evolved from epigeous fungi. During their evolution, truffles lost the ability to disperse their spores by air currents, and propagate instead by animal consumption and subsequent defecation.
In amateur mushroom hunting, and to a large degree in academic mycology as well, identification of Dikarya is based on the features of the sporocarp.
The largest known fruitbody is a specimen of Phellinus ellipsoideus (formerly Fomitiporia ellipsoidea) found on Hainan, part of China. It measures up to in length and is estimated to weigh between .
Underground fungi also play a role in a three-way symbiotic relationship with small marsupials and Australia Eucalyptus forests. In Eucalyptus forests, hypogeous sporocarp dispersal is positively affected by fires. After a fire, most if not all epigeous sporocarps are wiped out, leaving hypogeous sporocarps to be the primary source of fungi for small marsupials. The ability of hypogeous fungi to resist disasters, such as fire, could be due to their evolved ability to survive the digestive systems of animals in order to distribute. Sporocarps can also serve as a food source for other fungi.
Sporocarps can be hosts to diverse communities of fungicolous fungi. Short-lived sporocarps are more often hosts to fungicolous fungi than are long-lived sporocarps, which may have evolved more investment in defense mechanisms and tend to have less water content than their short-lived counterparts. sporocarps, sporocarps that have a higher surface area to volume ratio, are hosts to a higher diversity of fungicolous fungi than sporocarps are.
Sporocarps of some fungal species have been observed to mark gravesites and sites of corpse decomposition.
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