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. Basidiomycota are filamentous fungi composed of hyphae and reproduce sexually via the formation of specialized club-shaped end cells called basidia that normally bear external meiospores. These specialized spores are called basidiospores. However, some Basidiomycota are obligate asexual reproducers. Basidiomycota that reproduce asexually can typically be recognized as members of this division by gross similarity to others, by the formation of a distinctive anatomical feature, cell wall components, and definitively by phylogenetic molecular analysis of DNA sequence data.
In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many plants, algae, fungi and protozoa.
The Marchantiophyta are a division of non-vascular land plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of genetic information.
Hornworts are a group of non-vascular Embryophytes constituting the division Anthocerotophyta. The common name refers to the elongated horn-like structure, which is the sporophyte. As in mosses and liverworts, hornworts have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of genetic information; the flattened, green plant body of a hornwort is the gametophyte stage of the plant.
Conocephalum is a genus of complex thalloid liverworts in the order Marchantiales and is the only extant genus in the family Conocephalaceae. Some species of Conocephalum are assigned to the Conocephalum conicum complex, which includes several cryptic species. Conocephalum species are large liverworts with distinct patterns on the upper thallus, giving the appearance of snakeskin. The species Conocephalum conicum is named for its cone-shaped reproductive structures, called archegoniophores. Common names include snakeskin liverwort, great scented liverwort and cat-tongue liverwort.
Johannes Max Proskauer was born in Göttingen, Germany. He travelled to England via a Kindertransport. His mother died in 1943 and his father was murdered in Auschwitz.
Megaceros is a genus of hornworts in the family Dendrocerotaceae. The genus is found in the Old World tropics of east Asia and Australia. Its name means 'big horn', and refers both to the exceptionally large size of the gametophyte thallus and to the large, horn-shaped sporophyte that the plants produce. Many species have a branching thallus that is more than two centimeters wide. The gametophytes are monoicous.
Anthoceros is a genus of hornworts in the family Anthocerotaceae. It is distributed globally. Species of Anthoceros are characterized by having a small to medium-sized, green thallus that is more or less lobed along the margins.
Vulpicida is a genus of lichenized fungi in the family Parmeliaceae. Circumscribed in 1993 to contain species formerly placed in Cetraria, the genus is widespread in Arctic to northern temperate regions, and contains six species. The genus is characterized by the presence of the secondary metabolites pulvinic acid and vulpinic acid, compounds that when combined with usnic acid, give the species their characteristic yellow and green colors.
Anthoceros agrestis, commonly called field hornwort, is a bryophyte of the genus Anthoceros. It has complicated taxonomies.
Phaeoceros laevis, the smooth hornwort, is a species of hornwort of the genus Phaeoceros. It is commonly found in areas where moisture is plentiful, such as moist soils in fields, the banks of streams and rivers or inundated beneath the surface of the rivers. It grows to a maximum height of about 5 millimetres and the plants are monoecious; the sex organs are visible on the dorsal surface.
Physoderma is a genus of chytrid fungi. Described by German botanist Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Wallroth in 1833, the genus contains some species that are parasitic on vascular plants, including P. alfalfae and P. maydis, causative agents of crown wart of alfalfa and brown spot of corn, respectively. Of the chytrid genera, Physoderma is the oldest. However, species were confused with the rust fungi, the genus Synchytrium, and the genus Protomyces of Ascomycota. Members of Physoderma are obligate parasites of pteridophytes and angiosperms. There are approximately 80 species within this genus.
Vermilacinia nylanderi is a fruticose lichen that grows on branches of shrubs in the fog regions along the Pacific Coast of North America in the Channel Islands and in Baja California from near El Rosario south to the Vizcaíno Peninsula The epithet honors William Nylander who published a monograph on the related genus Ramalina in 1870.
Casterlorum is a genus of fossil with controversial interpretation from the Middle Ordovician Douglas Lake Member of the Lenoir Limestone from Douglas Dam Tennessee The genus was named in honor of Ken Caster.
Teuvoa is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Megasporaceae. It was first classified by lichenologists Mohammad Sohrabi and Steven Leavitt in 2013, with Teuvoa uxoris asigned as the type species. This genus was delineated from the larger genus, Aspicilia, following a molecular phylogenetic analysis which revealed that the Aspicilia uxoris species group constituted a distinct lineage in the Megasporaceae. Initially containing three species, two additional species native to China were added in 2018. Teuvoa is characterised by its small ascospores and conidia, and the absence of secondary metabolites.
Sphaerocarpos muccilloi is a species of liverwort in the family Sphaerocarpaceae.
Candelariella biatorina is a species of corticolous (bark-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Candelariaceae. It is characterised by its distinct yellow hue and apothecia that are biatorine in form. The lichen grows on the trunks of various conifer species across the western United States, and in the Russian Far East.
Sporodophoron is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Arthoniaceae. It includes four corticolous (bark-dwelling) crustose lichen species. Sporodophoron is uniquely characterised by the formation of structures called sporodochia, which are open conidiomata in the form of tufts of conidiophores on the thallus. Although these lichens bear a strong resemblance to Inoderma, another genus within the same family, Sporodophoron's distinct chemical makeup sets it apart from its lichen relatives. Collectively, the genus has a widespread geographical distribution in the Northern Hemisphere, with species found in distinct habitats in North America, Europe, Japan, and the Russian Far East.
