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

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Etymology

Origin of basidium

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

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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

This conjugate condition is finally brought to a close by the nuclear fusion in the basidium.

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

When the four spores are full grown they have consumed all the protoplasm in the basidium.

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

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

C, A basidium before the four nuclei derived from the secondary nucleus of the basidium have passed into the four basidiospores.

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

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

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015

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 basidia of the Gasteromycetes, though resembling those of the Hymenomycetes, are more variable in form and the number of the spores not so constant.

From Student's Hand-book of Mushrooms of America, Edible and Poisonous by Thomas Taylor

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