perithecium

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noun

An ascocarp shaped like a skittle or ball, distinguished by a small pore, the ostiole, through which the spores are released one by one when ripe.

Scrabble 20

Meanings

nounperithecium (plural perithecia)

plural perithecia

  1. biologyAn ascocarp shaped like a skittle or ball, distinguished by a small pore, the ostiole, through which the spores are released one by one when ripe.
    1 more example

    The Erysiphacae may possibly have given rise to the Laboulbeniales, the only other group in which a single daughter cell of the oogonium is responsible for the asci, and perhaps to the lower Pyrenomycetes also; these, like the Erysiphaceae, have regularly arranged asci, and in Chaetomium fimete the perithecium is without an ostiole.

    2010, Helen Gwynne-Vaughan, Fungi: Ascomycetes, Ustilaginales, Uredinales, page 54

Synonyms & antonyms

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Origin

Cite this entry
APA

perithecium. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/perithecium

MLA

“perithecium.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/perithecium. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “perithecium,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/perithecium.

Source: perithecium on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.