Basidiomycota
Noun
Meaning
comprises fungi bearing the spores on a basidium; includes Gasteromycetes (puffballs) and Tiliomycetes comprising the orders Ustilaginales (smuts) and Uredinales (rusts) and Hymenomycetes (mushrooms, toadstools, agarics and bracket fungi); in some classification systems considered a division of kingdom Fungi
Source: WordNetSynonyms
Hypernyms
Phrases with the word
Examples
According to a 2008 estimate, Basidiomycota comprise three subphyla (including six unassigned classes) 16 classes, 52 orders, 177 families, 1,589 genera, and 31,515 species.
Basidiomycota are filamentous fungi composed of hyphae (except for yeasts), and reproduce sexually via the formation of specialized club-shaped end cells called basidia that normally bear external meiospores (usually four).
However, some Basidiomycota reproduce asexually in addition or exclusively.
Smuts with both a yeast phase and an infectious hyphal state are examples of dimorphic Basidiomycota.
Aside from yeast anamorphs, and uredinia, aecia and pycnidia, some Basidiomycota form other distinctive anamorphs as parts of their life-cycles.
In some Basidiomycota the spores are not ballistic, and the sterigmata may be straight, reduced to stubbs, or absent.