A fruiting body is the structure a fungus builds to make and release spores. In mushroom-forming fungi it is the mushroom; the rest of the fungus is mycelium. Some fungi make underground fruiting bodies instead: a 2026 study describes truffles as belowground spore-producing bodies that depend on digging animals to spread (Kennedy et al., 2026).
Researchers usually measure fruiting bodies, and the results vary. A 2026 study of 14 named Psilocybe cubensis strains grown under identical conditions found that psilocybin varied between individual fruiting bodies of the same strain, with coefficients of variation from 12.81% to 23.39% (Sharchaton et al., 2026). A 2023 study found fruiting bodies accumulated more psilocybin than lab-grown mycelium (Waldbillig et al., 2023).
That variation is why one figure for one mushroom cannot stand for a name or a species. Fruiting bodies are also what people pick, which is where misidentification happens; the journal gives no features for telling them apart.
Sources
- Kennedy et al., 2026, Mycorrhiza
- Sharchaton et al., 2026, Journal of Fungi
- Waldbillig et al., 2023, Frontiers in Fungal Biology
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