Edible mushrooms are the fleshy fruit bodies of several species of macrofungi. Edibility may be defined by criteria including the absence of poisonous effects on humans and desirable taste and aroma. Mushrooms that have a particularly desirable taste are described as "choice". Edible mushrooms are consumed for their nutritional and culinary value. Mushrooms, especially dried shiitake, are sources of umami flavor.
The Polyporales are an order of about 1800 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.
Laetiporus is a genus of edible mushrooms found throughout much of the world. Some species, especially Laetiporus sulphureus, are commonly known as sulphur shelf, chicken of the woods, the chicken mushroom, or the chicken fungus because it is often described as tasting like and having a texture similar to that of chicken meat.
Laetiporus sulphureus is a species of bracket fungus found in Europe and North America. Its common names are crab-of-the-woods, sulphur polypore, sulphur shelf, and chicken-of-the-woods. Its fruit bodies grow as striking golden-yellow shelf-like structures on tree trunks and branches. Old fruitbodies fade to pale beige or pale grey. The undersurface of the fruit body is made up of tubelike pores rather than gills.
Amanita altipes, also called the yellow long-stem amanita, is a species of agaric fungus found in coniferous woodlands in southwestern China.
Suillellus luridus, commonly known as the lurid bolete, is a fungus of the family Boletaceae, found in calcareous broadleaved woodlands in Europe. Fruit bodies appear in summer and autumn and may be locally abundant. It is a firm bolete with an olive-brown cap up to 20 cm (8 in) in diameter, with small orange or red pores on the underside. The stout ochre stem reaches 8–14 cm (3–6 in) high and 1–3 cm (0.4–1.2 in) wide, and is patterned with a red network. Like several other red-pored boletes, it stains blue when bruised or cut.
The Fomitopsidaceae are a family of fungi in the order Polyporales. Most species are parasitic on woody plants, and tend to cause brown rots. The name comes from Fomitopsis + -aceae.
Rubroboletus rhodoxanthus is a species of bolete in the family Boletaceae, native to Europe. Previously known as Boletus rhodoxanthus, it was transferred in 2014 to the newly erected genus Rubroboletus, based on DNA data.
Amanita rubrovolvata, commonly known as the red volva amanita, is a species of fungus in the family Amanitaceae. The fungus produces small to medium-sized mushrooms, with reddish-orange caps up to 6.5 millimetres wide. The stems are up to 10 cm (4 in) tall, cream-coloured above the ring and cream to yellowish below it. The stem ends in a roughly spherical bulb at the base, which is covered with bright orange patches.
Rhodofomitopsis lilacinogilva is a species of bracket fungus in the family Fomitopsidaceae. Known primarily from Australia, it has also been recorded from Brazil and India. It is a white-rot fungus that grows on rotting eucalyptus wood. Its main identifying feature is the lilac colour of the pore surface on the underside of the fruit body.
Laetiporus zonatus is a species of polypore fungus in the family Fomitopsidaceae. It is found in southwestern China, where it grows on oak. The species was described as new to science in 2014 by Baokai Cui and Jie Song. The specific epithet zonatus refers to the concentric rings on the upper surface of the white to cream-colored fruit body. The fungus produces ellipsoid to pear-shaped (pyriform) or drop-shaped basidiospores that measure 5.8–7.2 by 4.3–5.5 μm. Molecular analysis of internal transcribed spacer DNA sequences indicate that L. zonatus is a unique lineage in the genus Laetiporus.
Laetiporus conifericola is a species of polypore fungus in the family Fomitopsidaceae. It is found in western North America ranging from California to Alaska, where it grows as a plant pathogen on conifer trees, particularly fir, spruce, and hemlock. Fruit bodies of the fungus comprise overlapping pore-bearing plates, measuring collectively up to 60 cm (24 in) across, and up to 4 cm (2 in) thick. Their color ranges from bright orange to salmon orange on the upper surface of the cap and stipe, with a yellow pore surface on the cap underside. Spores are egg-shaped, smooth, hyaline (translucent), and measure 6.5–8.0 by 4.0–5.0 μm. The species has a pleasant odour when fresh.
Laetiporus cremeiporus is a species of polypore fungus in the family Fomitopsidaceae. It is found in cooler temperate areas of China and Japan, where it grows on logs and stumps of hardwood trees, especially oak. The fruit body of the fungus comprises large masses of overlapping reddish-orange caps with a cream-colored pore surface on the underside.
Laetiporus montanus is a species of polypore fungus in the family Fomitopsidaceae. It is found in mountainous areas of central Europe and in China, where it grows on conifers.
Buglossoporus eucalypticola is a species of poroid fungus in the family Fomitopsidaceae. It was described as a new species in 2016 by mycologists Mei-Ling Han, Bao-Kai Cui, and Yu-Cheng Dai. The type specimen was collected in the Danzhou Tropical Botanical Garden, in Danzhou, China. It was growing on a dead Eucalyptus tree. The fruit body has a fan-shaped or semicircular cap that projects up to 10 cm (3.9 in), 6.5 cm (2.6 in) wide, and 7 mm (0.3 in) thick at its base. The surface colour when fresh is peach to brownish orange, but when dry becomes clay-pink to cinnamon. The pore surface on the cap underside is initially white before becoming pinkish buff or clay-buff to dark brown. B. eucalypticola causes a brown rot in its host.
Fomitopsis subfeei is a species of polypore fungus in the family Fomitopsidaceae. Found in southern China, it was reported as new to science in 2014 by mycologists Mei-Ling Han and Bao-Kai Cui. Characteristics of the fungus include perennial, effused-reflexed to pileate fruit bodies, a concentrically grooved cap surface, and a pinkish-brown to vinaceous-brown pore surface on the cap underside. Microscopic characters include spindle-shaped cystidioles, and small, oblong-ellipsoid spores measuring 4–5 by 1.9–2.5 μm. The fungus causes a brown rot on gymnosperms.
Amanita subpallidorosea is a mushroom of the large genus Amanita, which occurs under oaks in southern China and Taiwan.
Truncospora macrospora is a species of poroid fungus in the family Polyporaceae. It was described as new to science in 2013 by Chinese mycologists Bao-Kai Cui and Chang-Lin Zhao. The fungus, found in southwest China, is distinguished by its annual growth habit, and the distinct dark brownish crust on its caps. The semicircular caps measure about 1.5–3 cm (0.6–1.2 in) long, 2.5–3.5 cm (1.0–1.4 in) wide, and 1–4 cm (0.4–1.6 in) thick. Microscopic characteristics include its relatively large spores, measuring 16.5–19.5 by 8.0–9.5 μm, which have a strongly dextrinoid reaction. The type was collected in the Gaoligong Mountains at an altitude of 2,400 metres (7,900 ft), where it was found growing on a fallen angiosperm branch.
Datroniella tropica is a species of crust fungus in the family Polyporaceae. Found in southwestern China, it was described as a new species in 2014 by mycologists Bao-Kai Cui, Hai J. Lee, and Yu-Cheng Dai, who placed it in the new genus Datroniella. The type collection was made in Tongbiguan Nature Reserve, where the fungus was found growing on a fallen angiosperm branch. The specific epithet tropica refers to its distribution in tropical China.
Ungulidaedalea is a fungal genus in the family Fomitopsidaceae. The genus was circumscribed by Chinese mycologists in 2016 to contain the single species Ungulidaedalea fragilis, a fungus that was described as new in 2014 with the name Fomitopsis fragilis. The holotype of this fungus was collected in Jianfengling Nature Reserve, in Ledong County (Hainan). The generic name Ungulidaedalea refers to the resemblance between this species and Daedalea, and also to the hoof-shaped (ungulate) form of the fruit body. Ungulidaedalea fragilis has rather fragile fruit bodies with a dark brown crust and large angular pores on the cap underside. Microscopic characteristics include its densely septated skeletal hyphae, and oblong-ellipsoid spores that measure 4–5.2 by 2.2–2.8 μm.
