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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 forest and amenity 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.
Polypores are a group of fungi that form large fruiting bodies with pores or tubes on the underside. They are a morphological group of basidiomycetes-like gilled mushrooms and hydnoid fungi, and not all polypores are closely related to each other. Polypores are also called bracket fungi, and their woody fruiting bodies are called conks.
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 Hymenochaetales are an order of fungi in the class Agaricomycetes. The order in its current sense is based on molecular research and not on any unifying morphological characteristics. According to one 2008 estimate, the Hymenochaetales contain around 600 species worldwide, mostly corticioid fungi and poroid fungi, but also including several clavarioid fungi and agarics. Species of economic importance include wood decay fungi in the genera Phellinus and Inonotus sensu lato, some of which may cause losses in forestry. Therapeutic properties are claimed for Inonotus obliquus ("chaga") and Phellinus linteus, both of which are now commercially marketed.
Neolentinus is a genus of wood-decaying agarics with tough fruit bodies composed of dimitic tissue, serrated lamella edges, and nonamyloid white binucleate basidiospores among other features. It was segregated from Lentinus in the broad taxonomic sense, hence the derivation of the name. Biologically Neolentinus species produce a brown rot type of decay of wood, whereas Lentinus causes a white rot. Molecular phylogenetic analysis shows that the two genera are unrelated. Neolentinus is phylogenetically allied to other brown rot genera such as Gloeophyllum, Heliocybe, and Veluticeps. A new order, the Gloeophyllales, has been described for these fungi. Heliocybe had been placed in synonymy but it differs phylogenetically and anatomically by the lack of clamp connections that all Neolentinus produce on their generative hyphae.
The Sclerodermataceae are a family of fungi in the order Boletales, containing several genera of unusual fungi that little resemble boletes. Taxa, which include species commonly known as the ‘hard-skinned puffballs’, ‘earthballs’, or 'earthstars', are widespread in both temperate and tropical regions. The best known members include the earthball Scleroderma citrinum, the dye fungus Pisolithus tinctorius and the 'prettymouths' of the genus Calostoma.
Heliocybe is an agaric genus closely allied to Neolentinus and the bracket fungus, Gloeophyllum, all of which cause brown rot of wood. Heliocybe sulcata, the type and sole species, is characterized by thumb-sized, tough, revivable, often dried, mushroom fruitbodies, with a tanned symmetric pileus that is radially cracked into a cartoon sun-like pattern of arranged scales and ridges, distant serrated lamellae, and a scaly central stipe. Microscopically it differs from Neolentinus by the absence of clamp connections. Like Neolentinus, it produces abundant, conspicuous pleurocystidia. Heliocybe sulcata typically fruits on decorticated, sun-dried and cracked wood, such as fence posts and rails, vineyard trellises in Europe, branches in slash areas, and semi-arid areas such on sagebrush or on naio branches in rain shadow areas of Hawaii, or in open pine forests.
The genus Gloeophyllum is characterized by the production of leathery to corky tough, brown, shaggy-topped, revivable fruitbodies lacking a stipe and with a lamellate to daedaleoid or poroid fertile hymenial surfaces. The hyphal system is dimitic to trimitic. The genus is further characterized by the production of a brown rot of wood. Phylogenetically, it along with several other brown rot Basidiomycota, Neolentinus, Heliocybe, and Veluticeps form an order called the Gloeophyllales.
The Gloeophyllales are a phylogenetically defined order of wood-decay fungi that is characterized by the ability to produce a brown rot of wood. It includes a single, identically defined family, the Gloeophyllaceae, in which are included the genera Gloeophyllum, Neolentinus, Heliocybe, and Veluticeps.
Melanoleuca is a poorly known genus of saprotrophic mushrooms traditionally classified in the family Tricholomataceae. Most are small to medium sized, white, brown, ocher or gray with a cylindrical to subcylindrical stipe and white to pale yellowish gills. The basidiospores are ellipsoid and ornamented with amyloid warts. Melanoleuca is considered a difficult group to study due to their macroscopic similarities among species and the need of a thorough microscopic analysis to separate species. DNA studies have determined that this genus is closely related to Amanita and Pluteus and that it does not belong to the family Tricholomataceae.
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.
The Echinodontiaceae are a family of crust fungi in the order Russulales. Species of this family, divided amongst two genera—Echinodontium and Laurilia—have a widespread distribution, although they are especially predominant in north temperate zones. They are parasitic or saprobic on wood, and may cause white rot of angiosperms and gymnosperms.
Antrodia is a genus of fungi in the family Fomitopsidaceae. Antrodia species have fruit bodies that typically resupinate, with the hymenium exposed to the outside; the edges may be turned so as to form narrow brackets. Most species are found in temperate and boreal forests, and cause brown rot.
Datronia is a genus of poroid crust fungi in the family Polyporaceae. The genus was circumscribed by Marinus Anton Donk in 1966, with Datronia mollis as the type species. Datronia fungi cause a white rot in hardwoods. Datronia contains six species found in northern temperate areas. The most recent addition, Datronia ustulatiligna, was described in 2015 from Himachal Pradesh in India.
Episphaeria is a genus of fungus in the Agaricales. The genus is monotypic, and contains the single rare species Episphaeria fraxinicola, found in Europe. Its familial position is not known with certainty. The tiny fruit bodies of the fungus resemble minute, white cups that grow scattered or in groups on the bark of ash trees.
The corticioid fungi are a group of fungi in the Basidiomycota typically having effused, smooth basidiocarps that are formed on the undersides of dead tree trunks or branches. They are sometimes colloquially called crust fungi or patch fungi. Originally such fungi were referred to the genus Corticium and subsequently to the family Corticiaceae, but it is now known that all corticioid species are not necessarily closely related. The fact that they look similar is an example of convergent evolution. Since they are often studied as a group, it is convenient to retain the informal (non-taxonomic) name of "corticioid fungi" and this term is frequently used in research papers and other texts.
Podoserpula is a genus of fungi in the family Amylocorticiaceae. The genus contains two species: the type, P. pusio, commonly known as the pagoda fungus, and the "Barbie pagoda", P. miranda, officially published in 2013. Podoserpula species produce fruit bodies consisting of up to a dozen caps arranged in overlapping shelves, attached to a central axis. Its unique shape is not known to exist in any other fungi. Four varieties of P. pusio are known, which differ in their sizes, spore morphology, and distribution. The genus is known to occur in Australia and New Zealand, Venezuela, Madagascar, and New Caledonia.
Amylocorticiales is an order of fungi in the class Agaricomycetes. The order was circumscribed in 2010 to contain mostly resupinate (crust-like) forms that have been referred to genera Anomoporia, Amyloathelia, Amylocorticiellum, Amylocorticium, Amyloxenasma, Anomoloma, Athelia, Athelopsis, Ceraceomyces, Hypochniciellum, Leptosporomyces and Serpulomyces.
Boreostereum is a genus of corticioid fungi. The genus was circumscribed in 1968 by Erast Parmasto to contain the type species, which was formerly known as Stereum radiatum. Boreostereum has four species that are widely distributed in northern temperate areas. Species in the genus have a dimitic hyphal system, and the hyphae have with brown encrustations that turn greenish when potassium hydroxide is applied. Boreosterum vibrans produces vibralactones, chemical metabolites that inhibit various enzymes. Recent phylogenetic research indicates that Boreostereum is a sister group to the rest of the Gloeophyllales.
The Gelatoporiaceae are a small family of crust fungi in the order Polyporales. The family was circumscribed in 2017 by mycologists Otto Miettinen, Alfredo Justo and David Hibbett to contain the type genus Gelatoporia and three other related genera, Cinereomyces, Obba, and Sebipora.
References
- ↑ Gilbertson, R.L.; et al. (1968). "Veluticeps berkeleyi and its decay of pine in North America". Mycologia. 60 (1): 29–41. doi:10.2307/3757311. JSTOR 3757311.
- ↑ Binder, M.; et al. (2005). "The phylogenetic distribution of resupinate forms across the major clades of mushroom-forming fungi (Homobasidiomycetes)". Syst. Biodivers. 3 (2): 113–157. doi:10.1017/S1477200005001623.
- ↑ Nakasone. K.K. (2004). "Morphological studies in Veluticeps, Pileodon, and related taxa". Sydowia. 56: 258–280.
- ↑ García-Sandoval R; Wang Z; Binder M. & Hibbett DS (2011). "Molecular phylogenetics of the Gloeophyllales and relative ages of clades of Agaricomycotina producing a brown rot". Mycologia. 103 (3): 510–524. doi:10.3852/10-209. PMID 21186327.