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 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.
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 13,000 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.
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 Tricholomataceae are a large family of mushrooms within the Agaricales. Originally a classic "wastebasket taxon", the family included any white-, yellow-, or pink-spored genera in the Agaricales not already classified as belonging to e.g. the Amanitaceae, Lepiotaceae, Hygrophoraceae, Pluteaceae, or Entolomataceae.
The Fistulinaceae are a family of fungi, the best-known member of which is the beefsteak fungus Fistulina hepatica. Molecular studies have now shown it to lie within the Agaricales.
The Agaricomycetes are a class of fungi in the division Basidiomycota. The taxon is roughly identical to that defined for the Homobasidiomycetes by Hibbett & Thorn, with the inclusion of Auriculariales and Sebacinales. It includes not only mushroom-forming fungi, but also most species placed in the deprecated taxa Gasteromycetes and Homobasidiomycetes. Within the subdivision Agaricomycotina, which already excludes the smut and rust fungi, the Agaricomycetes can be further defined by the exclusion of the classes Tremellomycetes and Dacrymycetes, which are generally considered to be jelly fungi. However, a few former "jelly fungi", such as Auricularia, are classified in the Agaricomycetes. According to a 2008 estimate, Agaricomycetes include 17 orders, 100 families, 1147 genera, and about 21000 species. Modern molecular phylogenetic analyses have been since used to help define several new orders in the Agaricomycetes: Amylocorticiales, Jaapiales, Stereopsidales, and Lepidostromatales.
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.
Veluticeps is a small genus of wood-rot fungi characterized by the production of resupinate to bracket shaped, perennial, tough, brown fruitbodies, that blacken when KOH solution is applied, and with a smooth to warted or cracked fertile undersurface. They cause a brown rot of wood. Cystidia in the hymenium are characteristically mostly in fascicles. The genus may be monotypic if Columnocystis is excluded. Phylogenetically, the type species, V. berkeleyi, groups with several other brown rot genera such as Neolentinus, Heliocybe, and Gloeophyllum.
The Corticiaceae are a family of fungi in the order Corticiales. The family formerly included almost all the corticioid fungi, whether they were related or not, and as such was highly artificial. In its current sense, however, the name Corticiaceae is restricted to a comparatively small group of corticioid genera within the Corticiales.
Atheliaceae is a family of corticioid fungi placed under the monotypic order Atheliales. Both the order and the family were described by Walter Jülich in 1981. According to a 2008 estimate, the family contains 20 genera and approximately 100 species. However, many genera formerly considered to belong in the Atheliaceae have since been moved to other families, including Amylocorticiaceae, Albatrellaceae, and Hygrophoraceae. Despite being a relatively small group with inconspicuous forms, Atheliaceae members show great diversity in life strategies and are widespread in distribution. Additionally, being a group strictly composed of corticioid fungi, they may also provide insights on the evolution of fruiting body forms in basidiomycetes.
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.
The Mycenaceae are a family of fungi in the order Agaricales. According to the Dictionary of the Fungi, the family contains 10 genera and 705 species. This is one of several families that were separated from the Tricholomataceae as a result of phylogenetic analyses. Taxa in the Mycenaceae are saprobic, have a cosmopolitan distribution, and are found in almost all ecological zones. The family was circumscribed by Caspar van Overeem in 1926.
Trichaptum is a genus of poroid fungi. The genus was circumscribed by American mycologist William Alphonso Murrill in 1904. Formerly classified in the family Polyporaceae, several molecular studies have shown that the genus belongs to the order Hymenochaetales.
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.
The Entylomatales are an order of smut fungi in the class Exobasidiomycetes. A monotypic order, it consists of a single family, the Entylomataceae. Both the family and order were circumscribed in 1997.
The Microstromatales are order of fungi in the class Exobasidiomycetes. The order consists of three families: the Microstromataceae, the Quambalariaceae, and the Volvocisporiaceae.
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.
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.
