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The spore-bearing structure of fungi in the Basidiomycotina. Each basidium usually bears four basidiospores on its outer surface, often on projections called sterigmata. The basidium is usually a single cell but in some basidiomy-cetes (e.g. Ustilaginales and Uredinales) it is segmented. The basidium is initially binucleate. These nuclei fuse, undergo meiosis, and form four haploid daughter nuclei, which subsequently become the basidiospores. In most basidiomycetes the basidia form a fertile layer, the hymenium.
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