In this chapter I will describe and illustrate the formation of fruit bodies and related structures from their earliest stages (fruit body ‘initials’) through to maturation. This will include discussion of the cell types concerned and their patterns of distribution, the development of form and the way in which tissue domains are defined, and aspects of fruit body construction that relate to, or are determined by, the mechanics and physical structure of the object. Development is a dynamic process. In a conventional book, conveying the full dimensionality of morphogenesis is extremely difficult. Illustrations are in two dimensions, but morphogenesis occurs in four – the three dimensions of space and the fourth dimension of time. Please remember that as you now continue.

If the activities of any organism can be described as having a purpose, then the purpose of the activities described so far in this book is to provide the fungi concerned with reproductive potential. Resources that the invasive, exploratory mycelium has won are not squandered on vegetative growth. Rather, as we have seen, from a very early stage the mycelium puts aside reserves for later use in asexual and/or sexual reproduction. The network of metabolic regulatory mechanisms provides some sort of partitioning system that diverts part of the absorbed nutrient into reserve materials. With the exception of perennating structures, like dormant spores, overwintering sclerotia, or some perennial (bracket) fruit bodies, fungi store these reserve materials for short times.