Teleomorph, anamorph and holomorph

This article is about life cycles of fungi. For other uses, see Anamorph (disambiguation).

In mycology, the terms teleomorph, anamorph, and holomorph apply to portions of the life cycles of fungi in the phyla Ascomycota and Basidiomycota:

  • Teleomorph: the sexual reproductive stage (morph), typically a fruiting body.
  • Anamorph: an asexual reproductive stage (morph), often mold-like. When a single fungus produces multiple morphologically distinct anamorphs, these are called synanamorphs.
  • Holomorph: the whole fungus, including anamorphs and teleomorph.