The fruiting body or spore-containing structure of an ascomycete fungus, which holds the sacs (asci) that produce spores.
From Greek 'askos' (sac) plus 'karpos' (fruit), literally meaning 'sac-fruit.' This mycological term was coined to describe the distinctive reproductive structure that characterizes the ascomycete fungi group.
Ascocarps are literally tiny fruit-like sacs that fungi make to launch thousands of microscopic spores into the air—when you see powdery mildew on plants, those are ascocarps in action, invisibly infecting crops worldwide!
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