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The two-layered outer wall of certain fungal fruiting bodies. It is most obvious in the ascocarp of gastero-mycete fungi, in which it consists of an outer exoperidium and an inner endoperidium. In puffballs (Lycoperdon), the exoperidium sloughs off or breaks up into a number of scales, while in the earthstars (Geastrum) it peels back over the endoperidium to give the characteristic star-shaped fruiting body. A peridium is also seen in the aecium surrounding the aeciospores of rust fungi and in the ascocarp of certain Erysiphales.
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