hypha

This varicoloured Coriolus versicolor is one of a large number of often unrelated fungi referred to collectively as bracket fungi because they form bracketlike growths on trees and timber. The fruiting body is the only part that is immediately visible. The mass of hyphae, which form its mycelium, penetrates and feeds upon the dead wood on which the fungus is living. The spore-producing fruiting body is derived from the mycelium.

(Plural hyphae) delicate, usually branching filament, many of which collectively form the mycelium and fruiting bodies of a fungus. Food molecules and other substances are transported along hyphae by the movement of the cytoplasm, known as ‘cytoplasmic streaming’.

Typically hyphae grow by increasing in length from the tips and by the formation of side branches. Hyphae of the higher fungi (the ascomycetes and basidiomycetes) are divided by cross walls or septa at intervals, whereas those of lower fungi (for example, bread mould) are undivided. However, even the higher fungi are not truly cellular, as each septum is pierced by a central pore, through which cytoplasm, and even nuclei, can flow. The hyphal walls contain chitin, a polysaccharide.