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| The families of mushrooms and toadstools represented in Britain and Ireland |
‘Split-gills’.
Morphology. The fruit-bodies producing basidia and basidiospores; persistent; attached laterally and bracket-shaped to fan-shaped (pleurotoid, with no more than a rudimentary stipe, the context tough and leathery); small to medium sized; in Schizophyllum commune, 1–4 cm across. The hymenium ostensibly borne on gills (with greyish-violet pseudo-lamellae). The gills atypical, rather obviously representing laterally flattened and radially elongated pores or cupules. The edges of the gills split longitudinally (each split half-revolute in dry conditions). Cystidia absent. The basidia ‘unmodified’. The basidiospores ballistosporic; hyaline; smooth; inamyloid.
The hyphal walls lamellate, with a thin, electron-dense outer layer and a relatively thick, electron-transparent inner layer. The generative hyphae not inflated.
Ecology. Mainly saprophytic. The fruit-bodies on dead wood (mostly), or on living wood. Associated with broad-leaved trees. The fruit-bodies on dead trees and fallen logs and on stored and construction timber. On hardwoods: trunks and dead branches, also on newly felled wood and stacked timber. Found in broad-leaved woodland and in mixed woodland.
Representation in Britain and Ireland. 9 species in Britain; Henningsomyces, Porotheleum, Rectipilus, Schizophyllum. Almost confined to southeast England.
World representation. 43 species; genera 5.
Classification. Basidiomycota; Basidiomycetes; Agaricomycetidae; Agaricales.
Illustrations. • Schizophyllum commune (LH). SCHIZOPHYLLACEAE. Schizophyllum commune, from Lange & Hora (1965).
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’.
