basidium

English

Latinized form of Ancient Greek βάσις (básis, “base”) + -idium.^[1]

basidium (plural basidia)

(mycology) A small structure, shaped like a club, found in the Basidiomycota division of fungi, that bears four spores at the tips of small projections. [from 19th c.]
- 1981, Timothy J. Baroni, A Revision of the Genus Rhodocybe Maire (Agaricales), page 24:
  The walls of these scleroid basidia often reach 1 μm or more in thickness and the walls stain deeply with congo red.

small club shaped structure

^ James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Basidium”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume I (A–B), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 689, column 3.