| Heliocybe | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Basidiomycota |
| Class: | Agaricomycetes |
| Order: | Gloeophyllales |
| Family: | Gloeophyllaceae |
| Genus: | Heliocybe Redhead & Ginns (1985) |
| Species: | H. sulcata |
| Binomial name | |
| Heliocybe sulcata (Berk.) Redhead & Ginns (1985) | |
Heliocybe is an agaric genus [1] closely allied to Neolentinus and the bracket fungus, Gloeophyllum , all of which cause brown rot of wood. [2] [3] Heliocybe sulcata is the type and sole species.
Heliocybe sulcata is characterized by thumb-sized, tough, revivable, often dried, mushroom fruitbodies. The tanned symmetric cap (pileus) is up to 2 centimetres (3⁄4 in) across and radially cracked into a ray pattern of scales and ridges. The lamellae are cream-coloured, [4] distant and serrated. The stipe is cylindrical, up to 2 cm tall and 4 mm wide, sometimes curved, and scaly towards the base, often enlarged. [4]
Like Neolentinus , H. sulcata produces abundant, conspicuous pleurocystidia, but H. sulcata lacks clamp connections. [1] Crinipellis zonata lacks the raised ridges along the margin. [4]
In older classifications, H. sulcata [5] was known as Lentinus sulcatus or Panus fulvidus. However, there is strong phylogenetic evidence for the segregation of a group of brown rot causing fungi at the level of order, including Neolentinus, Heliocybe and Gloeophyllum , from the Polyporales where Lentinus and Panus are classified. [2] [3] [6] [7] [8] Heliocybe has also been placed into synonymy with Neolentinus, but anatomically they differ by the absence versus the presence of clamp connections [1] and phylogenetically Heliocybe is distinct, being either a sister group to Neolentinus or to a Neolentinus-Gloeophyllum-clade, or allied to Gloeophyllum odoratum. [2] [3] [7] [8]
Heliocybe derives from the Greek helios (= the sun) and cybe (=head), and means "the sun-head". It was coined in reference to its sun-like pattern on its pileus together with its affinity to sun-baked habitats.[ citation needed ]
Heliocybe sulcata typically fruits on decorticated, sun-dried and cracked wood, such as fence posts and rails, vineyard trellises in Europe, branches in slash areas, and semi-arid areas such on sagebrush or on naio branches in rain shadow areas of Hawaii, or in open pine forests. [9] [10] [11] [12]
In North America, it can be found in the Mountain states and as far east as Texas and Kansas from April to September. [4]