noun
definition
A small structure, shaped like a club, found in the Basidiomycota division of fungi, that bears four spores at the tips of small projections.
Examples of basidia in a Sentence
In young asci a similar fusion of two nuclei occurs, and also in basidia, in each case the nucleus of the ascus or of the basidium resulting from the fusion subsequently giving rise by division to the nuclei of the ascospores and basidiospores respectively.
Among the simplest cases are the sheet-like aggregates of sporogenous hyphae in Puccinia, Uromyces, &c., or of basidia in Exobasidium, Corticium, &c., or of asci in Exoascus, Ascocorticium, &c. In the former, where the layer is small, it is often termed a sorus, but where, as in the latter, the sporogenous layer is extensive, and spread out more or less sheet-like on the supporting tissues, it is more frequently termed a hymenium.
Other series of modifications arise in which the tissues corresponding to the stroma invest the sporogenous hyphal ends, and thus enclose the spores, asci, basidia, &c., in a cavity.
Most of Basidiomycetes are characterized by the large sporophore on which the basidia with its basidiospores are borne.
P. Petersii has a transversely divided basidium as in Auriculariaceae, but the basidia are surrounded with a peridium-like sheath.
The Tremellinaceae are characterized by the possession of basidia which are divided by two vertical walls at right angles to one another.
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.
The gleba is usually differentiated into a number of chambers which are lined directly by the hymenium (basidial layer), or else the chambers contain an interwoven mass of hyphae, the branches of which bear the basidia.
Puffballs produce basidiospores from basidia that develop within the fruitbody.