basidium

American  

[buh-sid-ee-uhm] / bəˈsɪd i əm /

noun

Mycology.

plural

basidia

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 /

plural

basidia

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

• basidial adjective

Etymology

Origin of basidium

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

Example Sentences

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

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2015

The first named contains a small number of forms with the basidium divided like the promycelium of the Uredineae.

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

The young basidium contains two nuclei, which later fuse; the fusion-nucleus then undergoes two successive divisions, involving a reduction of chromosomes, and each of the four resultant nuclei passes through a sterigma into a basidiospore.

From The New Gresham Encyclopedia. Vol. 1 Part 3 Atrebates to Bedlis by Various

Autobasidiomycetes.—In this by far the larger division of the Basidiomycetes the basidia are undivided and the four basidiospores are borne on short sterigmata nearly always at the apex of the basidium.

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

Each projection or sterigma soon swells at its extremity into a bladder-like body, the young spore, and, as they enlarge, the protoplasm of the basidium is passed into them.

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