germ tube
- noun
- Specialized
:
tubo germinativo
- The germ tube emerges from the spore and starts to grow toward the soil.
Examples
-
After landing on a damp pine needle, a spore germinates and sends its germ tube down into a leaf pore, where it eventually forms a spaghetti-like ball of hyphae.
Academic text (1998) -
The germ tube is capable of penetrating susceptible leaves.
Academic text (1994) -
Each spore releases a germ tube that searches for a suitable surface to colonize.
-
As the spore germinates, the germ tube elongates and penetrates the plant tissue.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The term is a literal, compositional combination: 'germ' (a developing/spore or embryonic structure) + 'tube' (a tubular outgrowth), so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to a tube produced during germination. Although technical biological knowledge clarifies the precise context, the physical meaning is directly derivable from the constituents.
Etymology
Germ tube: The noun germ tube describes the thin, tube-shaped growth that comes out of a spore when it starts to grow. The word germ here means 'to start to grow' and tube shows its long, narrow shape, so the name reminds you it is the first small tube a fungus uses to grow into new tissue.
