10 letters · 14 points in Scrabble
noun form genus of sterile imperfect fungi; many form sclerotia; some cause sclerotium disease in plants
noun compact usually dark-colored mass of hardened mycelium constituting a vegetative food-storage body in various true fungi; detaches when mature and can give rise to new growth
originFrom New Latin sclerotium, from Ancient Greek σκληρός (sklērós, “hard”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0