sporophore

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A spore-bearing structure, especially in fungi.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In botany: A placenta.
2. n. The branch or part of the thallus which bears spores or spore mothercells. The various forms are further distinguished as gonidiophore, sporangiophore, ascophore, etc.
3. n. In Archegoniateæ, a sporophyte. Also called encarpium.

Wiktionary

1. n. A spore-producing organ, especially a fungus hypha specialized to carry spores.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A placenta.
2. n. That alternately produced form of certain cryptogamous plants, as ferns, mosses, and the like, which is nonsexual, but produces spores in countless numbers. In ferns it is the leafy plant, in mosses the capsule. Cf. oöphore.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. 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