A large, important class of parasitic or saprophytic fungi, the algal or algalike fungi. The plant body ranges from an undifferentiated mass of protoplasm to a well-developed and much-branched mycelium. Reproduction is mainly sexual, by the formation of conidia or sporangia; but the group shows every form of transition from this method through simple conjugation to perfect sexual reproduction by egg and sperm in the higher forms.

a large and probably unnatural group of fungi and funguslike organisms comprising the Mastigomycota (including the Oomycetes) and Zygomycota subdivisions of the division Eumycota; a category not used in all systems

A group of fungi that may consist of one cell or have filaments (hyphae) with few or no cross walls and that reproduce sexually by union of two sex cells.