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 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.
The Marasmiaceae are a family of fungi in the order Agaricales. Basidiocarps are most frequently agarics, but occasionally cyphelloid. According to a 2008 estimate, the family contained 54 genera and 1590 species, but molecular research, based on cladistic analysis of DNA sequences, has led to a more restricted family concept, so that the Marasmiaceae included just 13 genera, and some 1205 species. It was reduced further down in 2020, to 10 genera and about 700 species.
Hygrophorus is a genus of agarics in the family Hygrophoraceae. Called "woodwaxes" in the UK or "waxy caps" in North America, basidiocarps are typically fleshy, often with slimy caps and lamellae that are broadly attached to decurrent. All species are ground-dwelling and ectomycorrhizal and are typically found in woodland. Around 100 species are recognized worldwide. Fruit bodies of several species are considered edible and are sometimes offered for sale in local markets.
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.
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.
Phaeocollybia is a genus of fungi in the family Hymenogastraceae. They are characterized by producing fruit bodies (mushrooms) with umbonate caps and rough brown spores. The genus is widely distributed, and contains about 50 species. They are known for a long stipe which continues down into the ground, known as a rooting stipe or pseudorhiza formed as the fruitbody grows up from the subterranean colonized roots well below the organic soil layer. The genus is primarily mycorrhizal but may also be somewhat parasitic on forest trees.
Pseudoomphalina is a genus of fungi in the placed in the family Tricholomataceae for convenience. The genus contains six species that are widespread in northern temperate areas. Pseudoomphalina was circumscribed by Rolf Singer in 1956. Pseudoomphalina was found to be paraphyletic to Neohygrophorus in a molecular phylogenetics study and since Pseudoomphalina is an older name, Neohygrophyorus was synonymized with it. The type species of Neohygrophorus was Neohygrophorus angelesianus, now Pseudoomphalina angelesiana. In earlier classifications based on anatomy prior to DNA sequence-based classifications, its unusual combination of features led taxonomists to independently create two subgenera in two genera: Hygrophorus subg. Pseudohygrophorus and Clitocybe subg. Mutabiles; the latter based on Neohygrophorus angelesianus but described under a new species name which is now placed in synonymy, Clitocybe mutabilis. All species of Pseudoomphalina are united by the presence of clamp-connections in their hyphae, an interwoven gill trama and amyloid spores. Pseudoomphalina angelesiana possesses grey-violaceous pigments that turn red in alkali solutions and lacks filiform, hyphal sterile elements in its hymenium and stipitipellis. These were features used to distinguish it from Pseudoomphalina as a genus, but Pseudoomphalina umbrinopurpurascens possesses these same pigments and the filiform elements of Pseudoomphalina. Molecular phylogenetics studies have also found some former species of Pseudoomphalina to belong in other genera. Pseudoomphalina pachyphylla was moved to its own genus, Pseudolaccaria, and Pseudoomphalina clusiliformis was synonymized with it. Pseudoomphalina flavoaurantia and Pseudoomphalina lignicola were found to belong in Clitocybula. Phylogenetically, Pseudoomphalina is in a tricholomatoid clade but not in the Tricholomataceae.
Panellus is a genus of more than 50 mushroom species of fungi in the family Mycenaceae as defined molecularly. Prior to molecular analyses the generic name had been used for any white-spored pleurotoid with amyloid spores. Unrelated but similar species are now classified in Sarcomyxa and Scytinotus. In older guides and other literature the type species had been placed in either Pleurotus or Panus and the poroid species had been classified in the synonymous genus Dictyopanus or in broadly defined genera like Polyporus (Polyporaceae) or the more closely allied Favolaschia (Mycenaceae). The closest molecular allies are Resinomycena and Cruentomycena.
Tubaria is a genus of fungi in the family Tubariaceae. The genus is widely distributed, especially in temperate regions. Tubaria was originally named as a subgenus of Agaricus by Worthington George Smith in 1870. Claude Casimir Gillet promoted it to generic status in 1876. The mushrooms produced by species in this genus are small- to medium-sized with caps ranging in color from pale pinkish-brown to reddish-brown, and often with remnants of the partial veil adhering to the margin. Mushrooms fruit on rotting wood, or, less frequently, in the soil. There are no species in the genus that are recommended for consumption.
Deconica coprophila, commonly known as the dung-loving psilocybe, or dung demon, is a species of mushroom in the family Strophariaceae. First described as Agaricus coprophilus by Jean Baptiste François Pierre Bulliard in 1793, it was transferred to the genus Psilocybe by Paul Kummer in 1871. In the first decade of the 2000s, several molecular studies showed that the Psilocybe was polyphyletic, and the non-bluing (non-hallucinogenic) species were transferred to Deconica.
Volvopluteus is a genus of small to medium-sized or big saprotrophic mushrooms growing worldwide. The genus has been segregated from Volvariella with which it shares some morphological characteristics such as the presence of a volva and a pink to pink-brown spore print. Phylogenetic analyses of DNA data have shown that Volvopluteus is closely related to Pluteus and both genera currently are classified in the family Pluteaceae, while Volvariella is not closely related to either genus and its position in the Agaricales is still uncertain.
Hemipholiota is a genus of agaric fungi in the order Agaricales. It was originally proposed by Rolf Singer in 1962 as a subgenus of Pholiota to contain species with absent or sparse pleurocystidia and absent chrysocystidia. Henri Romagnesi raised it to generic status in 1980, but this naming was invalid as it did not meet the requirements of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants. Marcel Bon published the genus validly in 1986.
Nivatogastrium is a genus of secotioid fungi in the family Strophariaceae. The genus has contained four species found in North America and New Zealand, but the type species, Nivatogastrium nubigenum, is now considered to be a gasteroid species of Pholiota, and was transferred to that genus in 2014.
Bogbodia is a bog-inhabiting agaric fungal genus that colonizes peat and Sphagnum and produces tan-colored fruit bodies. The only species in the genus is Bogbodia uda. Characteristically it forms chrysocystidia and rather large, finely roughened, violaceous basidiospores each with a poorly defined germ pore. The genus differs from Hypholoma which has smaller, smooth basidiospores and typically have cespitose fruit bodies and decay wood. Phylogenetically, Bogbodia is distinct from Hypholoma, Pholiota, and Leratiomyces.
Mycopan is one of several genera of agaric fungi (mushrooms) that were formerly classified in the genus Hydropus or Mycena. Mycopan is currently monotypic, containing the single species Mycopan scabripes. It produces dusky colored fruit bodies that are mycenoid, but lack amyloid or dextrinoid tissues except for the amyloid basidiospores. Its stipe is notably scruffy from cystidioid end cells and unlike true Hydropus it does not bleed clear fluid. Phylogenetically, Mycopan is distant from the Mycenaceae and the type of that family, Mycena, and it is not with the type of Hydropus, Hydropus fuliginarius. Mycopan grouped closest to Baeospora. Baeospora was shown to be in the Cyphellaceae by Matheny and colleagues. Mycopan scabripes grows from debris in forest floors in North America and Europe.
The Porotheleaceae are a family of saprotrophic, mainly wood-decay fungi in the order Agaricales that are primarily agarics, but also include cyphelloid fungi. The family had been informally cited in the literature as the 'hydropoid' clade. The type genus, Porotheleum, was placed in the phylogenetically defined clade in 2002 but the clade was more strongly supported in 2006 though without including Porotheleum. Its sister group is the Cyphellaceae, both in the 'marasmioid clade'. Some included taxa are cultivated by ants. More recently the family was recognized in three analyses that included Porotheleum.
Pholiota nubigena, commonly known as the gastroid pholiota or the bubble gum fungus, is a species of secotioid fungus in the family Strophariaceae. It is found in mountainous areas of the western United States, where it grows on rotting conifer wood, often fir logs. It fruits in spring, often under snow, and early summer toward the end of the snowmelt period in high mountain forests. Fruit bodies appear similar to unopened mushrooms, measuring 1–4 centimetres tall with 1–2.4 cm diameter caps that are whitish to brownish. They have a short but distinct whitish stipe that extend through the internal spore mass (gleba) of the fruit body into the cap. The gleba consists of irregular chambers made of contorted gills that are brownish in color. A whitish, cottony partial veil is present in young specimens, but it often disappears in age and does not leave a ring on the stipe.
Flammula is a dark brown-spored genus of mushrooms that cause a decay of trees, on whose bases they often fruit, forming clusters of yellowish brown mushrooms.
Phaeonematoloma is a small genus of slender, fleshy mushrooms in the family Strophariaceae with large, brownish spores with a germ pore and with conspicuous chrysocystidia. The genus has several assigned species but may be monotypic. The type species, Phaeonematoloma myosotis, grows along the edges of bogs in peaty soils and sometimes amongst Sphagnum or other mosses. This type species has been classified in Pholiota, Flammula, and in Hypholoma or the latter's synonymous generic name, Nematoloma, from which the generic name Phaeonematoloma is derived. Unlike Hypholoma (Nematoloma), Phaeonematoloma was originally partially differentiated by its brown spore print without the purplish colors of a "Nematoloma". Modern molecular evidence supports the recognition of Phaeonematoloma as an independent genus separate from Hypholoma and Pholiota. It is possible that other species may belong in this genus, which may include Bogbodia.
