Basidiomycota is one of two large divisions that, together with the Ascomycota, constitute the subkingdom Dikarya within the kingdom Fungi. Members are known as basidiomycetes. More specifically, Basidiomycota includes these groups: agarics, puffballs, stinkhorns, bracket fungi, other polypores, jelly fungi, boletes, chanterelles, earth stars, smuts, bunts, rusts, mirror yeasts, and Cryptococcus, the human pathogenic yeast.
The Polyporales are an order of about 1,800 species of fungi in the division Basidiomycota. The order includes some polypores as well as many corticioid fungi and a few agarics. Many species within the order are saprotrophic, most of them wood-rotters. Some genera, such as Ganoderma and Fomes, contain species that attack living tissues and then continue to degrade the wood of their dead hosts. Those of economic importance include several important pathogens of trees and a few species that cause damage by rotting structural timber. Some of the Polyporales are commercially cultivated and marketed for use as food items or in traditional Chinese medicine.
The Agaricales are an order of fungi in the division Basidiomycota. As originally conceived, the order contained all the agarics, but subsequent research has shown that not all agarics are closely related and some belong in other orders, such as the Russulales and Boletales. Conversely, DNA research has also shown that many non-agarics, including some of the clavarioid fungi and gasteroid fungi belong within the Agaricales. The order has 46 extant families, more than 400 genera, and over 25,000 described species, along with six extinct genera known only from the fossil record. Species in the Agaricales range from the familiar Agaricus bisporus and the deadly Amanita virosa to the coral-like Clavaria zollingeri and bracket-like Fistulina hepatica.
The Hymenochaetales are an order of fungi in the class Agaricomycetes. The order in its current sense is based on molecular research and not on any unifying morphological characteristics. According to one 2008 estimate, the Hymenochaetales contain around 600 species worldwide, mostly corticioid fungi and poroid fungi, but also including several clavarioid fungi and agarics. Species of economic importance include wood decay fungi in the genera Phellinus and Inonotus sensu lato, some of which may cause losses in forestry. Therapeutic properties are claimed for Inonotus obliquus ("chaga") and Phellinus linteus, both of which are now commercially marketed.
Neolentinus is a genus of wood-decaying agarics with tough fruit bodies composed of dimitic tissue, serrated lamella edges, and nonamyloid white binucleate basidiospores among other features. It was segregated from Lentinus in the broad taxonomic sense, hence the derivation of the name. Biologically Neolentinus species produce a brown rot type of decay of wood, whereas Lentinus causes a white rot. Molecular phylogenetic analysis shows that the two genera are unrelated. Neolentinus is phylogenetically allied to other brown rot genera such as Gloeophyllum, Heliocybe, and Veluticeps. A new order, the Gloeophyllales, has been described for these fungi. Heliocybe had been placed in synonymy but it differs phylogenetically and anatomically by the lack of clamp connections that all Neolentinus produce on their generative hyphae.
The Clavariaceae are a family of fungi in the order Agaricales. Originally the family contained most of the clavarioid fungi, but in its current sense is more restricted, albeit with a greater diversity of basidiocarp forms. Basidiocarps are variously clavarioid or agaricoid (mushroom-shaped), less commonly corticioid or hydnoid.
The Clavulinaceae are a family of fungi in the order Cantharellales. The family is not well defined, but currently comprises species of clavarioid fungi as well as some corticioid fungi. These species are nutritionally diverse, some being ectomycorrhizal, others wood-rotting saprotrophs, others lichenized, and yet others lichenicolous.
The Thelephorales are an order of fungi in the class Agaricomycetes. The order includes corticioid and hydnoid fungi, together with a few polypores and clavarioid species. Most fungi within the Thelephorales are ectomycorrhizal. None is of any great economic importance, though Sarcodon imbricatus is edible and commercially marketed, whilst several species have been used for craft dyeing.
The Tricholomataceae are a large family of fungi within the order Agaricales. Originally a classic "wastebasket taxon", the family included any white-, yellow-, or pink-spored genera in the Agaricales not already classified as belonging to e.g. the Amanitaceae, Lepiotaceae, Hygrophoraceae, Pluteaceae, or Entolomataceae.
The Sclerodermataceae are a family of fungi in the order Boletales, containing several genera of unusual fungi that little resemble boletes. Taxa, which include species commonly known as the ‘hard-skinned puffballs’, ‘earthballs’, or 'earthstars', are widespread in both temperate and tropical regions. The best known members include the earthball Scleroderma citrinum, the dye fungus Pisolithus tinctorius and the 'prettymouths' of the genus Calostoma.
Agaricomycotina is one of three subdivisions of the Basidiomycota, and represents all of the fungi which form macroscopic fruiting bodies. Agaricomycotina contains over 30,000 species, divided into three classes: Tremellomycetes, Dacrymycetes, and Agaricomycetes. Around 98% of the species are in the class Agaricomycetes, including all the agarics, bracket fungi, clavarioid fungi, corticioid fungi, and gasteroid fungi. Tremellomycetes contains many basidiomycete yeasts and some conspicuous jelly fungi. Dacrymycetes contains a further group of jelly fungi. These taxa are founded on molecular research, based on cladistic analysis of DNA sequences, and supersede earlier morphology-based classifications. Agaricomycotina contains nearly one third of all described species of fungi.
Gloeophyllum is a genus of fungus in the class Agaricomycetes. It is characterized by the production of leathery to corky tough, brown, shaggy-topped, revivable fruitbodies lacking a stipe and with a lamellate to daedaleoid or poroid fertile hymenial surfaces. The hyphal system is dimitic to trimitic. The genus is further characterized by the production of a brown rot of wood. Phylogenetically, it along with several other brown rot Basidiomycota, Neolentinus, Heliocybe, and Veluticeps form an order called the Gloeophyllales.
Fungi diverged from other life around 1.5 billion years ago, with the glomaleans branching from the "higher fungi" (dikaryans) at ~570 million years ago, according to DNA analysis. Fungi probably colonized the land during the Cambrian, over 500 million years ago,, and possibly 635 million years ago during the Ediacaran, but terrestrial fossils only become uncontroversial and common during the Devonian, 400 million years ago.
The Hydnaceae are a family of fungi in the order Cantharellales. Originally the family encompassed all species of fungi that produced basidiocarps having a hymenium consisting of slender, downward-hanging tapering extensions referred to as "spines" or "teeth", whether they were related or not. This artificial but often useful grouping is now more generally called the hydnoid or tooth fungi. In the strict, modern sense, the Hydnaceae are limited to the genus Hydnum and related genera, with basidiocarps having a toothed or poroid hymenium. Species in the family are ectomycorrhizal, forming a mutually beneficial relationship with the roots of trees and other plants. Hydnum repandum is an edible species, commercially collected in some countries and often marketed under the French name pied de mouton.
The Corticiaceae are a family of fungi in the order Corticiales. The family formerly included almost all the corticioid fungi, whether they were related or not, and as such was highly artificial. In its current sense, however, the name Corticiaceae is restricted to a comparatively small group of corticioid genera within the Corticiales.
The Phanerochaetaceae are a family of mostly crust fungi in the order Polyporales.
The corticioid fungi are a group of fungi in the Basidiomycota typically having effused, smooth basidiocarps that are formed on the undersides of dead tree trunks or branches. They are sometimes colloquially called crust fungi or patch fungi. Originally such fungi were referred to the genus Corticium and subsequently to the family Corticiaceae, but it is now known that all corticioid species are not necessarily closely related. The fact that they look similar is an example of convergent evolution. Since they are often studied as a group, it is convenient to retain the informal (non-taxonomic) name of "corticioid fungi" and this term is frequently used in research papers and other texts.
The gasteroid fungi are a group of fungi in the Basidiomycota. Species were formerly placed in the obsolete class Gasteromycetes Fr., or the equally obsolete order Gasteromycetales Rea, because they produce spores inside their basidiocarps rather than on an outer surface. However, the class is polyphyletic, as such species—which include puffballs, earthballs, earthstars, stinkhorns, bird's nest fungi, and false truffles—are not closely related to each other. Because they are often studied as a group, it has been convenient to retain the informal (non-taxonomic) name of "gasteroid fungi".
Amylocorticiales is an order of fungi in the class Agaricomycetes. The order was circumscribed in 2010 to contain mostly resupinate (crust-like) forms that have been referred to genera Anomoporia, Amyloathelia, Amylocorticiellum, Amylocorticium, Amyloxenasma, Anomoloma, Athelopsis, Ceraceomyces, Hypochniciellum, Leptosporomyces and Serpulomyces and the anomalous species, Athelia rolfsii, now classified in its own genus, Agroathelia.
