Capillitium (pl. capillitia) is a mass of sterile fibers within a

fruit body In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the Ovary (plants), ovary after flowering plant, flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their ...

interspersed among

spore In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many plants, algae, f ...

s. It is found in

Mycetozoa Mycetozoa is a polyphyletic grouping of slime molds. It was originally thought to be a monophyletic clade, but recently it was discovered that protostelia are a polyphyletic group within Conosa. Classification It can be divided into dictyostelid ...

(slime molds) and

gasteroid fungi The gasteroid fungi are a group of fungi in the Basidiomycota. Species were formerly placed in the obsolete class Gasteromycetes Fr. (literally "stomach fungi"), or the equally obsolete order Gasteromycetales Rea, because they produce spores insi ...

of the fungal subdivision

Agaricomycotina The subdivision Agaricomycotina, also known as the hymenomycetes, is one of three taxa of the fungal division Basidiomycota (fungi bearing spores on basidia). The Agaricomycotina contain some 20,000 species, and about 98% of these are in the clas ...

. In the fungi, the form of the capillitia, including shape, size, branching patterns, presence or absence of slits or pores, thickness of the walls, and color, are features that can be used to identify certain species or genera.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite book , title=Poisonous Mushrooms of the northern United States and Canada , vauthors=Ammirati J, Traquair JA, Horgen PA , year=1985 , publisher=Fitzhenry & Whiteside in cooperation with Agriculture Canada , location=Markham, Ontario , isbn=978-0889029774 , page=30, 376 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nhWbsGB7z4cC&pg=PA30&dq=capillitium {{cite book , vauthors=Kirk PM, Cannon PF, Minter DW, Stalpers JA , title=Dictionary of the Fungi , edition=10th , publisher=CAB International , location=Wallingford, UK , year=2008 , page=117 , isbn=9780851998268 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IFD4_VFRDdUC&pg=PA117&dq=capillitium Fungal morphology and anatomy