Pycniospores are a type of

spore In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many plants, algae, f ...

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

. They are produced in special cup-like structures called pycnia or pynidia. Almost all fungi

reproduce asexually Asexual reproduction is a type of reproduction that does not involve the fusion of gametes or change in the number of chromosomes. The offspring that arise by asexual reproduction from either unicellular or multicellular organisms inherit the fu ...

with the production of spores. Spores may be colorless, green, yellow, orange, red, brown or black.

Other types of spore

;Sporangiospores Sporangiospores (spore:spore, angion:sac) are spores formed inside the

sporangium A sporangium (; from Late Latin, ) is an enclosure in which spores are formed. It can be composed of a single cell or can be multicellular. Virtually all plants, fungi, and many other lineages form sporangia at some point in their life cy ...

which is a spore sac. ;Conidia Conidia (singular:

conidium A conidium ( ; ), sometimes termed an asexual chlamydospore or chlamydoconidium (), is an asexual, non-motile spore of a fungus. The word ''conidium'' comes from the Ancient Greek word for dust, ('). They are also called mitospores due to th ...

) are spores produced at the tip of special branches called conidiophores. ;Oidia Oidia (singular: oidium). In several fungi, the

hyphae A hypha (; ) is a long, branching, filamentous structure of a fungus, oomycete, or actinobacterium. In most fungi, hyphae are the main mode of vegetative growth, and are collectively called a mycelium. Structure A hypha consists of one or ...

is often divided into a large number of short pieces by transverse walls. Each piece is able to germinate into a new body. These pieces are called oidia (small

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

). ;Chlamydospores

Chlamydospore A chlamydospore is the thick-walled large resting spore of several kinds of fungi, including Ascomycota such as '' Candida'', Basidiomycota such as ''Panus'', and various Mortierellales species. It is the life-stage which survives in unfavourable c ...

s (chlymus: mantle) are produced like oidia but differ from oidia in being thick walled. They are either terminal or intercalary.

References

Fungal morphology and anatomy Mycology {{mycology-stub