a spore-bearing branch or organ: the part of the thallus of a sporophyte that develops spores; in ferns and mosses and liverworts is practically equivalent to the sporophyte
a small usually single-celled asexual reproductive body produced by many nonflowering plants and fungi and some bacteria and protozoans and that are capable of developing into a new individual without sexual fusion; "a sexual spore is formed after the fusion of gametes"