The Strophariaceae are a family of fungi in the order Agaricales. Under an older classification, the family covered 18 genera and 1316 species. The species of Strophariaceae have red-brown to dark brown spore prints, while the spores themselves are smooth and have an apical germ pore. These agarics are also characterized by having a cutis-type pileipellis. Ecologically, all species in this group are saprotrophs, growing on various kinds of decaying organic matter. The family was circumscribed in 1946 by mycologists Rolf Singer and Alexander H. Smith.
Hypholoma is a genus of fungi which are quite well known due to the commonness of sulphur tuft on stumps in temperate woodlands. Species in this genus are easily recognizable because the dark spores create a distinctive greenish effect on the yellow cap underside. Hypholoma means "mushrooms with threads" because of the thread-like veil that connects the cap to the stem when young and for the bundles of rhizomorphs which radiate outwards from the stem base. Other well-known species are H. capnoides and H. lateritium.
The genus Stropharia is a group of medium to large agarics with a distinct membranous ring on the stipe. Well-known members of this genus include the edible Stropharia rugosoannulata and the blue-green verdigris agarics. Stropharia are not generally regarded as good to eat and there are doubts over the edibility of several species. However the species Stropharia rugosoannulata is regarded as prized and delicious when young, and is now the premier mushroom for outdoor bed culture by mycophiles in temperate climates.
Leratiomyces ceres, commonly known as the Redlead Roundhead, is mushroom which has a bright red to orange cap and dark purple-brown spore deposit. It is usually found growing gregariously on wood chips and is one of the most common and most distinctive mushrooms found in that habitat. It is common on wood chips and lawns in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. The name Stropharia aurantiaca has been used extensively but incorrectly for this mushroom.
Rickenella is a genus of brightly colored bryophilous agarics in the Hymenochaetales that have an omphalinoid morphology. They inhabit mosses on mossy soils, peats, tree trunks and logs in temperate regions of both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Phylogenetically related agarics are in the genera Contumyces, Gyroflexus, Loreleia, Cantharellopsis and Blasiphalia, as well as the stipitate-stereoid genera Muscinupta and Cotylidia. and the clavarioid genus, Alloclavaria.
Loreleia is a genus of brightly colored agarics in the Hymenochaetales that have an omphalinoid morphology. They inhabit mosses and or liverworts on soil in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Phylogenetically related agarics are in the genera Contumyces, Gyroflexus, Rickenella, Cantharellopsis and Blasiphalia, as well as the stipitate-stereoid genera Muscinupta and Cotylidia and the clavaroid genus, Alloclavaria. However, the large number of DNA base-pair changes causes a long-branch to form in phylogenetic analyses depicted as cladograms.
Psilocybe subaeruginosa is a species of agaric fungus in the family Hymenogastraceae described in 1927 and known from Australia and New Zealand. As a blueing member of the genus Psilocybe it contains the psychoactive compounds psilocin and psilocybin.
Lichenomphalia is both a basidiolichen and an agaric genus. Most of the species have inconspicuous lichenized thalli that consist of scattered, small, loose, nearly microscopic green balls or foliose small flakes containing single-celled green algae in the genus Coccomyxa, all interconnected by a loose network of hyphae. The agaric fruit bodies themselves are nonlichenized and resemble other types of omphalinoid mushrooms. These agarics lack clamp connections and do not form hymenial cystidia. The basidiospores are hyaline, smooth, thin-walled, and nonamyloid. Most of the species were originally classified in the genera Omphalina or Gerronema. Historically the species were classified with those other genera in the family, the Tricholomataceae together with the nonlichenized species. Lichenomphalia species can be grouped into brightly colored taxa, with vivid yellow and orange colors, versus the grey brown group, depending upon the microscopic pigmentation deposits. Molecular research comparing DNA sequences now place Lichenomphalia close to the redefined genus Arrhenia, which together with several other genera not traditionally considered to be related, fall within the newly redefined Hygrophoraceae.
The Hymenogastraceae is a family of fungi in the order Agaricales with both agaric and false-truffle shaped fruitbodies. Formerly, prior to molecular analyses, the family was restricted to the false-truffle genera. The mushroom genus Psilocybe in the Hymenogastraceae is now restricted to the hallucinogenic species while nonhallucinogenic former species are largely in the genus Deconica classified in the Strophariaceae.
Pholiota is a genus of small to medium-sized, fleshy mushrooms in the family Strophariaceae. They are saprobes that typically live on wood. The genus has a widespread distribution, especially in temperate regions, and contains about 150 species.
Weraroa was a genus of mushrooms from the families Hymenogastraceae and Strophariaceae. The genus was initially described by mycologist Rolf Singer in 1958 to accommodate the single species Secotium novae-zelandiae reported by Gordon Herriott Cunningham in 1924. It was thought that the genus represented an intermediary evolutionary stage between a hypogeous (underground) ancestor and the related epigeous genus Stropharia. Advances in phylogenetics and taxonomic changes since 1958 found it contained unrelated species from multiple genera. It is now considered a synonym of the genus Psilocybe.
Psilocybe weraroa is a secotioid fungus in the family Hymenogastraceae. It is endemic to New Zealand, where it grows in native forests from rotting wood and woody debris. Despite its pouch-like form this species is closely related to Psilocybe cyanescens and Psilocybe subaeruginosa. As a bluing member of the genus Psilocybe it contains the psychoactive compounds psilocin and psilocybin.
Mythicomyces is a fungal genus in the family Mythicomycetaceae. A monotypic genus, it contains the single species Mythicomyces corneipes, first described by Elias Fries in 1861. The fungus produces fruit bodies with shiny yellowish-orange to tawny caps that are 1–3 cm (0.4–1.2 in) in diameter. These are supported by stems measuring 2–5.7 cm (0.8–2.2 in) long and 1–2 mm thick. A rare to uncommon species, it is found in northern temperate regions of North America and Europe, where it typically fruits in groups, in wet areas of coniferous forests. There are several species with which M. corneipes might be confused due to a comparable appearance or similar range and habitat, but microscopic characteristics can be used to reliably distinguish between them.
Robert Kühner was a French mycologist most notable for reviewing many forms of agaric genera.
Leratiomyces erythrocephalus, commonly known as the red pouch fungus, is a species of fungus in the family Strophariaceae. First described scientifically as Secotium erythrocephalum by Louis René Tulasne in 1845 and later transferred to Weraroa by American mycologists Rolf Singer and Alexander H. Smith in 1958, it was given its current name in 2008. It is found in New Zealand.
Protostropharia, is a coprophilous agaric fungal genus that produces glutinous, mostly yellowish to yellow brown fruit bodies. Characteristically most form chrysocystidia and rather large, smooth, violaceous basidiospores each with a prominent germ pore. It is differentiated from Stropharia by production of astrocystidia on its mycelium rather than by acanthocytes that Stropharia produces. Phylogenetically, Protostropharia is distinct from Stropharia, Pholiota, and Leratiomyces. Two species, P. luteonitens and P. tuberosa, form pseudosclerotia in the dung substrates.
Protostropharia alcis is a species of coprophilous agaric fungus in the family Strophariaceae. The fungus produces fruit bodies on moose, elk, and deer dung. The species has been recorded in Europe, Canada and Brazil.
Deconica neorhombispora is a species of agaric fungus in the family Strophariaceae. It can be found in Brazil and Mexico. It was originally described from specimens found near San Bartolomé Ayautla, Oaxaca, Mexico as Naematoloma rhombisporum, then transferred to Hypholoma rhombispora. After this, it was transferred to Psilocybe neorhombispora because the name "Psilocybe rhombispora" was already occupied, but this species is now a synonym of Deconica phyllogena. Psilocybe neorhombispora was finally transferred to Deconica neorhombispora. Psilocybe subbrunneocystidiata was originally named as a new species of Psilocybe from Itapuã State Park in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The authors assigned it to Psilocybe section brunneocystidiatae with Psilocybe brunneocystidiata, Psilocybe neocaledonica and Psilocybe aureicystidiata. Psilocybe subbrunneocystidiata was found to be a synonym of Deconica neorhombispora. Psilocybe neocaledonica and Psilocybe aureicystidiata were also found to belong in Deconica.
Clavogaster virescens is a species of secotioid or pouch-like fungus in the family Strophariaceae. It is endemic and indigenous to New Zealand, where it grows on rotting wood in native bush and mixed native and introduced forests. It has a stout yellowish stem, and a powder blue, purplish or greenish blue cap that forms a pouch, often referred to as a peridium, enclosing reddish brown or orange chambered gleba. The species is sometimes known as the "Spindle Pouch".
