Ascoma

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The reproductive structure of a sac fungus in which spores are produced inside microscopic sacs called asci
2. A fruiting body belonging to certain ascomycete fungi that holds the spore-bearing sacs during reproduction
3. The spore-producing body formed by sac fungi, which encloses the asci that release their spores when mature

Etymology: "Ascoma" is a technical coinage rather than an old word, built from two Greek-derived pieces. The first part, "asco-", comes from the Greek "askos", meaning a wineskin or leather bag, which is the root behind words like "ascus", the sac in which certain fungi produce their spores. The second part, "-oma", is a suffix from Greek that forms nouns for swellings, growths, or masses of tissue, as in "carcinoma" or "lymphoma". Put together, the term denotes a growth or structure built around the spore-bearing sacs of fungi. Because the word was assembled from classical elements to name a biological structure, it belongs to the modern scientific vocabulary of mycology rather than to any ancient usage, and the ancient Greeks who used "askos" for a leather bottle would have had no notion of it.