English

Noun

basidiomycete ‎(plural basidiomycetes)

1. (mycology) Any fungus of the phylum Basidiomycota, that produces sexual spores on a basidium.
   • 1996, Brian Sutton, A Century of Mycology, page 135,

     The result is that over all these initiatives in classification have hovered the spectres of basidiomycete, and especially ascomycete, taxonomy.

   • 2008, Donald M. Huffman, Lois H. Tiffany, George Knaphaus, Rosanne A. Healy, Mushrooms and Other Fungi of the Midcontinental United States, page 9,

     The majority of macroscopic fleshy fungi are basidiomycetes. Basidiomycetes produce spores on a basidium, the basic feature that separates them from other groups of fungi. Some of the basidiomycetes forcibly discharge their spores from the basidia, which remain after spore discharge. Other basidiomycete groups release their spores by collapse of the basidia, which are not present in the mature fruiting body.

   • 2010, Meredith Blackwell, Fungal evolution and taxonomy, Helen E. Roy, Fernando E. Vega, Dave Chandler (editors), The Ecology of Fungal Entomopathogens, page 7,

     Among basidiomycetes there are classic examples of farming interactions in which Old World termites cultivate a monophyletic group of fungi and New World leaf-cutting ants cultivate two distinct cultivar groups (Currie et al. 2003; Munkacsi et al. 2004; Little and Currie 2008).

Related terms

• basidiocarp
• basidiospore
• basidium

Translations

See also

• Basidiomycota