basidium

(noun)

a small structure, shaped like a club, found in the Basidiomycota phylum of fungi, that bears four spores at the tips of small projections

Related Terms

Examples of basidium in the following topics:

  • Basidiomycota: The Club Fungi

    • The fungi in the Phylum Basidiomycota are easily recognizable under a light microscope by their club-shaped fruiting bodies called basidia (singular, basidium), which are the swollen terminal cell of a hypha.
    • The club-shaped basidium carries spores called basidiospores.
    • In the basidium, nuclei of two different mating strains fuse (karyogamy), giving rise to a diploid zygote that then undergoes meiosis.