Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

sclerotium

American  
[skli-roh-shee-uhm] / sklɪˈroʊ ʃi əm /

noun

Mycology.
sclerotia plural
  1. a vegetative, resting food-storage body in certain higher fungi, composed of a compact mass of hardened mycelia.


sclerotium British  
/ sklɪəˈrəʊʃɪəm /

noun

  1. a compact mass of hyphae, that is formed by certain fungi and gives rise to new fungal growth or spore-producing structures

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

Etymology

Origin of sclerotium

From New Latin, dating back to 1810–20; see origin at sclerotin, -ium

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Ergot is the name given to the spore, the sclerotium, of the parasitic filamentous fungus Claviceps purpurea, which attacks various cereal grains and wild grasses, especially rye.

From Scientific American May 17, 2013

The sclerotium is a black-violet, slightly curved, conical body, a few millimeters to up to six centimeters in length that can develop in place of a pollen grain.

From Scientific American May 17, 2013

Simple; club cylindrical, elongated, smooth; whitish, more or less tinged with pink above; one to two-inches high, base minutely strigose, springing from a compressed brownish sclerotium.

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

This latter commences when the sclerotium is brought into contact with damp ground during the usual temperature of our warmer seasons.

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

Many such clusters can be produced on one sclerotium, so that soon the greater part of the surface is covered by filamentous conidia-bearers with their panicles.

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

Last year’s bumper crop came from the sclerotia of two of them — variant 195 and 234.

From New York Times Apr. 26, 2022

The disease typically infects soybeans during flowering, resulting in stem lesions with extensive growth of white mold and formation of hard, black sclerotia.

From Time Magazine Archive

The sclerotia remain in the soil for years as the source of future infections.

From Time Magazine Archive

The mycelium, which grows so exuberantly in the leaf, often brings forth many other productions, which are called sclerotia, and are, according to their nature, a thick bulbous tissue of mycelium filaments.

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

In fungi, oils are often found in the spores, but sometimes also in sclerotia, mycelia, or filaments.

From The Chemistry of Plant Life by Thatcher, Roscoe Wilfred

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 12,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training