A
sporangium (pl.,
sporangia) (modern Latin, from
Greek σπόρος (sporos) ‘spore’ +
αγγείον (angeion) ‘vessel’) is an enclosure in which
spores are formed. It can be composed of a single cell or can be multicellular. All
plants,
fungi, and many other lineages form sporangia at some point in their life cycle. Sporangia can produce spores by
mitosis, but in nearly all land plants and many fungi, sporangia are the site of
meiosis and produce genetically distinct haploid spores.