Saprotrophism

Of all the potential levels of interaction between fungi and other organisms, parasitism is perhaps the most difficult to demonstrate and distinguish from saprotrophism in the fossil record.

Savile (43) suggests that obligate parasitism is a fundamental attribute of primitive groups and that more than once saprotrophism may have derived from it.

Saprotrophism facilitates the persistence of the fungal population in a stand and limits the effects of genetic drift and founder effects by massively sustaining the production of propagules that will try to infect the healthy trees available (see Model section).