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| The families of mushrooms and toadstools represented in Britain and Ireland |
Including the ‘Dry Rot’ Fungus.
~Hygrophoropsidaceae
Morphology. The fruit-bodies producing basidia and basidiospores; gymnocarpic; flattened and more or less appressed to the substrate or encrusting, with the hymenium on the outside (resupinate and flat or effuso-reflexed); medium sized to very large; (4–)5–50 cm across. The hymenium with pegs or spinose, or smooth, or irregularly folded, ridged or wrinkled (smooth to meruloid or pseudoporoid); not thickening. The hymenophoral trama bilateral. The basidia ‘unmodified’; not of the ceratobasidialean type (q.v.). The basidiospores ellipsoid to fusoid; ballistosporic; yellow-brown; smooth; inamyloid (dextrinoid).
The hyphal walls lamellate, with a thin, electron-dense outer layer and a relatively thick, electron-transparent inner layer. The hyphae monomitic. The generative hyphae inflated. Spaerocysts not occurring among the context hyphae.
Chemical reactions. The context hyphae not xanthochroic.
Ecology. Saprophytic. The fruit-bodies borne on the ground (then humicolous), or on dead wood (including the notorious Dry Rot Fungus, Serpula lacrymans). Associated with broad-leaved trees and with conifers. The fruit-bodies on trunks and branches of living trees, on dead trees and fallen logs, and on stored and construction timber. Mostly associated with trees. Found in broad-leaved woodland, in mixed woodland, in coniferous woodland, and in places modified by human activities (in forests, or sometimes attacking structural timber with devastating effects).
Representation in Britain and Ireland. Coniophora, Jaapia, Leucogyrophana, Pseudomerulius, Serpula.
World representation. 42 species; genera 11. “Widespread”.
Classification. Basidiomycota; Basidiomycetes; Agaricomycetidae; Boletales.
Illustrations. • Coniophora puteana, Serpula lacrymans (LH). CONIOPHORACEAE. 1, Serpula lacrymans; 2, Coniophora puteana. Sunesen & Dahlstrøm, in Lange & Hora (1965). • Serpula lacrymans (Berkeley). CONIOPHORACEAE. 1, Serpula lacrymans Fr. (formerly Merulius lacrymans, Dry Rot Fungus). NIDULARIACEAE. 2, Crucibulum laeve (Huds.) Kambly; 3, Cyathus striatus (Huds.) Hoffm. PUCCINIACEAE. 4, Gymnosporangium sabinae (Dicks.) Winter; 5, Gymnosporangium juniperae Link. HELOTIACEAE. 6, Chlorencoelia versiformis (Pers.) Dixon; 7, Ascocoryne sarcoides (Jacq.) Groves. ‘FUNGOID Flowering Plant’: 8, Balanophora sp. From Berkeley (1860).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2008 onwards. The families of mushrooms and toadstools represented in Britain and Ireland. Version: 5th August 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
