•Largest group of fungi: more than 32,000 described species in 3,400 genera.
•Ascomycetes are “sac fungi”
•In most ascomycetes the ascus contains eight ascospores and is turgid, ejecting its spores by a squirt mechanism.
•There is a very wide range of lifestyles: saprotrophs, necrotrophic or biotrophic parasites of plants animals and humans.
•mutualistic symbionts: lichens
•The range of habitats is wide, as would be expected of such a large and diverse group of fungi: soil, the above-ground parts of plants, freshwater and sea.
•Most ascomycetes are recognized by their fruit bodies or ascocarps, i.e. the structures which surround the asci.