perithecium

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English

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Etymology

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From peri- +‎ thecium.

Noun

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perithecium (plural perithecia)

  1. (mycology) 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.
    • 2010, Helen Gwynne-Vaughan, Fungi: Ascomycetes, Ustilaginales, Uredinales, page 54:
      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.