Vegetative Growth Simplistically, wood fungi live through two functionally different phases: the vegetative stage for mycelial spread and the reproductive stage for the elab-oration of spore-producing structures. Rayner et al. (1985) extended the development of a fungus in arrival, establishment, exploitation, and exit. The vegetative, asexual stage consists in wood fungi of vegetative hyphae with some specialized forms. The reproductive stage can both occur asexually or sexually (Schwantes 1996). Functional specialization of the mycelium occurs during the vegetative stage: germination, infection, spread, and survival. These functions are correlated with different "fungal organs". Spores (conidia, chlamydospores, also the sex-ually derived asco- and basidiospores) germinate under suitable conditions (moisture, temperature). The young germ hypha first shows some nuclei be-fore the young mycelium grows with septation in the monokaryotic condi( ion. N1ycelial growth takes
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