Bot. Pl. conidia. [mod.L., f. Gr. κόνις dust, as if representing a dim. *κονίδιον.] A unicellular asexual reproductive body occurring in certain fungi.
1870. Bentley, Bot., 378. These conidia may be regarded as a fourth kind of reproductive organ.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 233. All other unicellular and non-sexual organs of reproduction we shall not term spores, but gonidia or conidia.
Hence Conidial a., of, or pertaining to, of the nature of or relating to a conidium or conidia. Conidiiferous a. [L. -fer bearing + -OUS], Conidiophorous a. [Gr. -φορος bearing + -OUS], bearing conidia. Conidioid a., of the form or character of a conidium. Conidiophore, a stalk or branch of the mycelium bearing conidia.
1874. Cooke, Fungi, 73. Only conidial forms of higher fungi. Ibid., 74. Which is really the conidiiferous form of Erysiphe. Ibid., 73. The species found on dead insects … are merely the conidiophores of species of Torrubia.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 264. The mass … which fills up the space between the conidia in the conidiophore of the Mucorini.
