A club-shaped cell or structure in basidiomycete fungi that produces and bears spores, typically four spores, on its outer surface.
From Latin 'basis' (base) plus a diminutive/shape suffix suggesting 'little club.' The term was coined in the 1800s by mycologists observing the distinctive club shapes under microscopes.
When you look at a mushroom gill under a microscope, you see thousands of tiny club-shaped cells called basidia—each one is like a spore factory that releases spores into the air, and the whole system is so efficient that one mushroom can release billions of spores in a single day.
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