Sclerotium Definition

sklə-rōshē-əm, -shəm
sclerotia
noun
A hard, dormant, multicellular structure found in certain fungi and slime molds.
American Heritage
In various fungi, a hardened, black or reddish-brown mass of threads in which food material is stored and which is capable of remaining dormant for long periods.
Webster's New World
Synonyms:
  • genus Sclerotium

Other Word Forms of Sclerotium

Noun

Singular:
sclerotium
Plural:
sclerotia

Origin of Sclerotium

  • New Latin from Greek sklērotēs hardness from sklēros hard

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

Sclerotium Sentence Examples

  • Physiologically, any cell or group of cells separated off from a hypha or unicellular fungus, and capable of itself growing out - germinating - to reproduce the fungus, is a spore; but it is evident that so wide a definition does not exclude the ordinary vegetative cells of sprouting fungi, such as yeasts, or small sclerotium like cell-aggregates of forms like Coniothecium.

  • In other cases (Diplodia, Aecidium, &c.) conidial or oidial "fructifications" arise by a number of hyphae interweaving themselves into a knot, as if they were forming a sclerotium.

  • The ear loses its starch, and ceases to grow, and its ovaries become penetrated with the white spongy tissue of the mycelium of the fungus which towards the end of the season forms the sclerotium, in which state the fungus lies dormant through the winter.

Find Similar Words

Find similar words to sclerotium using the buttons below.

Words Starting With

SSCSCL

Words Ending With

MUMIUM

Unscrambles

sclerotium

Words Starting With S and Ending With M

Starts With S & Ends With MStarts With SC & Ends With MStarts With S & Ends With UM

Word Length

10 Letter Words10 Letter Words Starting With S10 Letter Words Ending With M