The fungal order Agaricales, also known as gilled mushrooms or euagarics, contains some of the most familiar types of mushrooms. The order has 33 extant families, 413 genera, and over 13000 described species, along with six extinct genera known only from the fossil record. They range from the ubiquitous common mushroom to the deadly destroying angel and the hallucinogenic fly agaric to the bioluminescent jack-o-lantern mushroom.
Fistulina hepatica is an unusual bracket fungus classified in the Agaricales, that is commonly seen in Britain, but can be found in North America, Australia, North Africa, Southern Africa and the rest of Europe. As its name suggests, it looks remarkably similar to a slab of raw meat. It has been used as a meat substitute in the past, and can still be found in some French markets. It has a sour, slightly acidic taste. For eating it must be collected young and it may be tough and need long cooking.
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 Amanitaceae is a family of mushroom-forming fungi. The family, also commonly called the amanita family, is in order Agaricales, the gilled mushrooms. The family consists primarily of the large genus Amanita, but also includes the smaller genera Amarrendia, Catatrama, Limacella, Limacellopsis, Saproamanita, Torrendia and Zhuliangomyces. Both Amarrendia and Torrendia are considered to be synonymous with Amanita but appear quite different because they are secotioid.
The Pluteaceae are a family of small to medium-sized mushrooms which have free gill attachment and pink spores. Members of Pluteaceae can be mistaken for members of Entolomataceae, but can be distinguished by the angled spores and attached gills of the Entolomataceae. The four genera in the Pluteaceae comprise the widely distributed Volvariella and Pluteus, the rare Chamaeota, and Volvopluteus, which was newly described in 2011 as a result of molecular analysis. The Dictionary of the Fungi estimates there are 364 species in the family.
Pleurotus eryngii is an edible mushroom native to Mediterranean regions of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, but also grown in many parts of Asia.
The Hygrophoraceae are a family of fungi in the order Agaricales. Originally conceived as containing white-spored, thick-gilled agarics, including Hygrophorus and Hygrocybe species, DNA evidence has extended the limits of the family, so it now contains not only agarics, but also basidiolichens and corticioid fungi. Species are thus diverse and are variously ectomycorrhizal, lichenized, associated with mosses, or saprotrophic. The family contains 25 genera and over 600 species. None is of any great economic importance, though fruit bodies of some Hygrocybe and Hygrophorus species are considered edible and may be collected for sale in local markets.
The Clavariaceae are a family of fungi in the order Agaricales. Collectively, they are commonly known as coral fungi due to their resemblance to aquatic coral, although other vernacular names including antler fungi, finger fungi, worm mold, and spaghetti mushroom are sometimes used for similar reasons.
Entoloma sinuatum is a poisonous mushroom found across Europe and North America. Some guidebooks refer to it by its older scientific names of Entoloma lividum or Rhodophyllus sinuatus. The largest mushroom of the genus of pink-spored fungi known as Entoloma, it is also the type species. Appearing in late summer and autumn, fruit bodies are found in deciduous woodlands on clay or chalky soils, or nearby parklands, sometimes in the form of fairy rings. Solid in shape, they resemble members of the genus Tricholoma. The ivory to light grey-brown cap is up to 20 cm (8 in) across with a margin that is rolled inward. The sinuate gills are pale and often yellowish, becoming pink as the spores develop. The thick whitish stem has no ring.
The Gomphidiaceae are a family of mushroom-forming fungi in the order Boletales. Unlike other boletes, all members of Gomphidiaceae are agarics, having gills instead of pores. Member genera include Chroogomphus, Cystogomphus, Gomphidius and Gomphogaster, the last being a monotypic genus that may be incorporated into Gomphidius in the future after molecular assessment. The similarly named genus Gomphus is unrelated to this family. Another genus Brauniellula has since been sunk into Chroogomphus.
Schizophyllum commune is a species of fungus in the genus Schizophyllum. The mushroom resembles undulating waves of tightly packed corals or loose Chinese fan. ”Gillies” or Split Gills vary from creamy yellow to pale white in colour. The cap is small, 1–4.5 cm wide with a dense yet spongey body texture. It is known as the split-gill mushroom because of the unique longitudinally divided nature of the "gills" on the underside of the cap. It is the only known fungi capable of retracting by movement. This mushroom is found throughout the world.
Panaeolus fimicola is a widespread but seldom identified "little brown mushroom" which sometimes contains small amounts of the hallucinogen psilocybin. Panaeolis ater is a synonym.
Schizophyllum is a genus of fungi in the family Schizophyllaceae. The widespread genus contains six wood-rotting species.
Rhodotus is a genus in the fungus family Physalacriaceae. It is a monotypic genus and consists of the single mushroom species Rhodotus palmatus, known in the vernacular as the netted rhodotus, the rosy veincap, or the wrinkled peach. This uncommon species has a circumboreal distribution, and has been collected in eastern North America, northern Africa, Europe, and Asia; declining populations in Europe have led to its appearance in over half of the European fungal Red Lists of threatened species. Typically found growing on the stumps and logs of rotting hardwoods, mature specimens may usually be identified by the pinkish color and the distinctive ridged and veined surface of their rubbery caps; variations in the color and quantity of light received during development lead to variations in the size, shape, and cap color of fruit bodies.
Mycena flavoalba, commonly known as the ivory bonnet, is a species of inedible mushroom in the family Mycenaceae. The cap is initially conical in shape, before becoming convex and then flattening out; it may reach dimensions of up to 1.5 cm (0.6 in) across. The cap color is ivory-white to yellowish white, sometimes more yellowish at the center. The tubular stems are up to 8 cm (3.1 in) long and 2.5 mm (0.10 in) thick, and have long, coarse white hairs at their bases. The mushroom is found in Europe, the Middle East, and North America, where it grows scattered or in dense groups under conifers and on humus in oak woods.
Saffron Ringless Amanita is a species of Amanita widely distributed in Europe.
Catathelasma imperiale is a large species of mushroom in the family Tricholomataceae. It is found in North America and Europe.
Entoloma haastii is a mushroom in the Entolomataceae family. Described as new to science in 1964, it is known only from New Zealand, where it grows on the ground in leaf litter, usually near Nothofagus species.
Gilled fungi with laterally-attached fruiting bodies are said to be pleurotoid. Pleurotoid fungi are typically wood-decay fungi and are found on dead and dying trees and coarse woody debris. The pleurotoid form is polyphyletic, having evolved a number of times within the Basidiomycota. Many species of pleurotoid fungi are commonly referred to as "oyster" mushrooms. Laterally-attached fungi with pores rather than gills are referred to as bracket fungi.
Tricholoma portentosum, commonly known as the charbonnier, or sooty head in North America, is a grey-capped edible mushroom of the large genus Tricholoma. It is found in woodlands in Europe and North America.
