Bot. [f. SPORO- + -PHORE. So F. sporophore.]
1. A spore-bearing process or stalk.
1849. Balfour, Man. Bot., § 1122. The reproductive organs consist of spores or spherical cells … supported often on simple or branched filamentous processes … called sporophores … or basidia.
1861. Bentley, Man. Bot., 387. Each basidium commonly bears four spores,… situated on stalks or branches proceeding from it. These stalks have been termed by some sporophores, a name which has been also used as synonymous with basidia.
1887. W. Phillips, Brit. Discomycetes, 344. Stylospores … produced on the surface of the stroma in tufts between the cups on clavate sporophores.
2. The asexual generation of plants.
1875. Dyer, in Encycl. Brit., III. 692/1. It will be convenient to use the word Sporophore for the agamogenetic generation, in which special cells (spores) are detached from the parent to serve as a means of propagation.
1882. Vines, trans. Sachs’ Bot., 225. The second stage in the process of development of the plant, or the asexual generation (sporophore).
