CONIDIUM

a type of asexual reproductive spore of fungi (division Mycota) usually produced at the tip or side of hyphae (filaments that make up the body of a typical fungus) or on special spore-producing structures called conidiophores. The spores detach when mature. They vary widely in shape, colour, and size, large ones being called macroconidia, small ones, microconidia. Conidia and conidiophores are used in the classification of the Fungi Imperfecti (form-class Deuteromycetes, q.v.), a group whose members do not ordinarily have sexual stages.