English

A gall of the fungus Puccinia urticata (nettle rust), covered with aecia

Alternative forms

• æcium

Noun

aecium ‎(plural aecia or aeciums)

1. (mycology) A cuplike fruiting structure of some parasitic fungi (rusts) that contains chains of aeciospores.
   • 1932 August, Ralph Ulysses Cotter, Factors Affecting the Development of the Aecial Stage of Puccinia Graminis, US Dept of Agriculture, Technical Bulletin No. 314, page 29,

     The writer therefore made observations to determine the conditions under which the aecia open and discharge spores most readily.

   • 2010, N. K. Soni, Vandana Soni, Fundamentals of Botany, Volume 1, page 127,

     The receptive hyphae with binucleate cells eventually form the basal cells of the aecium. […] Many cup-like structures, called aecia, appear on the lower surface of leaf.

   • 2010, M. S. Patil, Anjali Patil, 16: The Rust Fungi: Systematics, Diseases and Their Management, Arun Arya, Analía Edith Perelló (editors), Management of Fungal Plant Pathogens, page 209,

     It is a heteroecious rust and its aecia are produced on species of Oxalis, namely O. stricta, according to Arthur (1929).

Related terms

• aecial
• aecidium

See also

• pycnium