basidium

American  

[buh-sid-ee-uhm] / bəˈsɪd i əm /

noun

Mycology.

basidia plural

1. a special form of sporophore, characteristic of basidiomycetous fungi, on which the sexual spores are borne, usually at the tips of slender projections.

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basidium British  

/ bæˈsɪdɪəm /

noun

1. the structure, produced by basidiomycetous fungi after sexual reproduction, in which spores are formed at the tips of projecting slender stalks

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basidium Scientific  

/ bə-sĭd′ē-əm /

basidia plural

1. A small, specialized, club-shaped structure typically bearing four basidiospores at the tips of minute projections in the fungi known as basidiomycetes. The basidium is unique to basidiomycetes and distinguishes them from other kinds of fungi.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• basidial
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• basidia
  plural

Etymology

Origin of basidium

First recorded in 1855–60; bas(is) + -idium

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

basidium basidia

A basidium is the fruiting body of a mushroom-producing fungus, and it forms four basidiocarps.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015

The basidium is a unicellular or multicellular structure from which four basidiospores arise as outgrowths; it starts as a binucleate structure, but soon, like the ascus, becomes uninucleate by the fusion of the two nuclei.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 3 "Frost" to "Fyzabad" by Various

Among these basidia and sterile cells will frequently be seen an overgrown bladder-like sterile basidium which projects beyond the rest of the hymenium, and whose use is not as yet fully known.

From The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise Its Habitat and its Time of Growth by Hard, Miron Elisha

Formerly, before the relationship of promycelium and basidium were understood, the Uredineae were considered as quite independent of the Basidiomycetes.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 3 "Frost" to "Fyzabad" by Various

There is also a further reduction in that the basidium is not derived from a teleutospore but is borne directly on the mycelium.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 3 "Frost" to "Fyzabad" by Various

The basidia undergo karyogamy to form a 2n zygote.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015

The “gills” are actually compacted hyphae on which the basidia are borne.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015

Gills on the underside of the mushroom cap contain cells called basidia.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015

The basidiocarp bears the developing basidia on the gills under its cap.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015

All parts of these reddish individuals seemed more or less infected with this disintegration, the basidia divided by transverse diaphragms into several cylindrical or oblong pieces, which finally become free.

From Fungi: Their Nature and Uses by Cooke, M. C. (Mordecai Cubitt)