spore

/spɔər/

/spɔ/

Other forms: spores

Spores are the seed-like cells that help some kinds of plants and bacteria to reproduce. Ferns and mosses reproduce using spores.

Many plants reproduce by means of flowers, which make seeds. Most plants that don't produce seeds use spores to spread themselves around. Spores are microscopic, and plants like mosses and ferns make huge quantities of spores, which are blown around by the wind so they can grow in new places. Spore comes from the Greek spora, "seed-time" or "a sowing."

Definitions of spore

1. noun

   a small usually single-celled asexual reproductive body produced by many nonflowering plants and fungi and some bacteria and protozoans and that are capable of developing into a new individual without sexual fusion
   “a sexual spore is formed after the fusion of gametes”

   types:

   basidiospore

   a sexually produced fungal spore borne on a basidium

   endospore

   a small asexual spore that develops inside the cell of some bacteria and algae

   carpospore

   a nonmotile spore of red algae

   chlamydospore

   thick-walled asexual resting spore of certain fungi and algae

   conidiospore, conidium

   an asexually produced fungal spore formed on a conidiophore

   oospore

   a thick-walled sexual spore that develops from a fertilized oosphere in some algae and fungi

   resting spore

   a spore of certain algae or fungi that lies dormant; may germinate after a prolonged period

   tetraspore

   one of the four asexual spores produced within a sporangium

   zoospore

   an asexual spore of some algae and fungi that moves by means of flagella

   fern seed

   the asexual spore of ferns that resembles dust; once thought to be seeds and to make the possessor invisible

   pollen

   the fine spores that contain male gametes and that are borne by an anther in a flowering plant

   microspore

   smaller of the two types of spore produced in heterosporous plants; develops in the pollen sac into a male gametophyte

   macrospore, megaspore

   larger of the two types of spore produced in heterosporous plants; develops in ovule into a female gametophyte

   aeciospore

   spore of a rust fungus formed in an aecium

   ascospore

   sexually produced fungal spore formed within an ascus

   zygospore

   a plant spore formed by two similar sexual cells

   teliospore

   a chlamydospore that develops in the last stage of the life cycle of the rust fungus

   pollinium

   a coherent mass of pollen grains (as in orchids)

   ragweed pollen

   pollen of the ragweed plant is a common allergen

   type of:

   agamete

   an asexual reproductive cell