antheridium

[an-thuh-rid-ee-uhm]

noun

Botany, Mycology.

plural

antheridia 

1. a male reproductive structure producing gametes, occurring in ferns, mosses, fungi, and algae.

antheridium

/ ˌænθəˈrɪdɪəm /

noun

1. the male sex organ of algae, fungi, bryophytes, and spore-bearing vascular plants, such as ferns, which produces antherozoids

antheridium

plural

antheridia 

1. An organ in certain organisms that produces male gametes. Antheridia are found in many groups of organisms, including the bryophytes, ferns, ascomycete fungi, and some algae. Most gymnosperms and all angiosperms, however, have lost the antheridium, and its role is filled by the pollen grain.

2. Compare archegonium

Other Word Forms

• antheridial adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of antheridium¹

From New Latin, dating back to 1850–55; anther, -idium

Word History and Origins

Origin of antheridium¹

C19: from New Latin, diminutive of anthēra _anther

Example Sentences

The sperm need all the help they can get in moving toward the egg, seldom travelling more than four inches from the structure called an antheridium that produced them.

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Cryptogamous plants with a distinct axis or stem, growing from the apex, and commonly not with later increase in diameter, usually furnished with distinct leaves; reproduction by antheridia and archegonia, sometimes also by gemmation.

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One of the mobile male reproductive bodies in the antheridia of cryptograms.

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The endochrome is believed to be fertilized by bodies developed in antheridia, the contents of each fertilized cell dividing into four ovate zoospores.

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In Cystopus Bliti the oosphere contains numerous nuclei, and all the male nuclei from the antheridium pass into it, the male and female nuclei then fusing in pairs.

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