Overview
The order Agaricales, also known as gilled mushrooms (for their distinctive ), or euagarics, contains some of the most familiar types of mushrooms. The order has about 4,000 identified species, or one quarter of all known Agaricomycetes. They range from the ubiquitous common mushroom to the deadly destroying angel and the hallucinogenic fly agaric to the bioluminescent jack-o-lantern mushroom.
Classification
Some notable fungi with gill-like structures, such as chanterelles, have long been recognized as being substantially different from usual Agaricales. Interestingly, molecular studies are showing more groups of agarics as being more divergent than previously thought, such as the genera Russula and Lactarius belonging to a separate order Russulales, and other gilled fungi, including such species as Paxillus involutus and Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca showing a closer affinity with Boletes in the order Boletales.
Also, some other quite distinctive fungi, the puffballs, and some clavaroid fungi, e.g. Typhula, and the Beefsteak fungus have been recently been shown to lie within the Agaricales.
The term agaric had traditionally referred to Agaricales, which were defined as exactly those fungi with gills. Given the discoveries described above, those two categories are not synonymous (although there is a very large overlap between the two groups).
Distribution and Habitat
Agarics are ubiquitous, being found across all continents. Most are terrestrial, their habitats including all types of woodland and grassland, varying largely from one genus to another.
Characteristics
Basidiocarps of the agarics are typically fleshy, with a stipe, often called a stem or stalk, a pileus (or cap) and lamellae (or gills), where basidiospores are produced. This is indeed the stereotyped structure of what we would call a mushroom.
Life Cycle
The agarics' life cycle is very much representative of the basidiomycetes. Clamp connections are present in the dikaryons of many species. The agarics always have their basidiospores ejected from the basidium into the area between gill edges. The spores are then let fall to the ground or carried by the wind.
Photos
Taxonomy
The Order Agaricales is further organized into finer groupings including:
- Family (28): Agaricaceae · Amanit · Amanitaceae · Bolbitiaceae · Broomeiaceae · Clavariaceae · Coprin · Coprinaceae · Coritinariaceae · Cortinariaceae · Crepidotaceae · Entolomataceae · Gigaspermaceae · Hydnangiaceae · Hygrophoraceae · Lycoperdaceae · Marasmiaceae · Nidulariaceae · Physalacriaceae · Pleurotaceae · Pluteaceae · Psathyrellaceae · Pterulaceae · Schizophyllaceae · Strophariaceae · Tricholomataceae · Tulostomataceae · Typhulaceae
- Species: ZipcodeZoo has pages for 24,123 species and subspecies in the Order Agaricales.
Families
Agaricaceae
The Agaricaceae is a family of fungi and includes organisms previously known as Tulostomataceae and Lepiotaceae. [more]
Amanit
Amanitaceae
Amanitaceae is a of fungi or mushrooms. The family, also commonly called the Amanita Family, is in order Agaricales, gilled mushrooms. The family consists primarily of the genus Amanita, but has also included the genus Limacella. [more]
Bolbitiaceae
Broomeiaceae
Clavariaceae
Coral fungi, also sometimes called antler fungi, are that are so named due to their resemblance to aquatic coral or antlers. [more]
Coprin
Coprinaceae
Coritinariaceae
Cortinariaceae
The Cortinariaceae is a large family of found worldwide. The family takes its name from its largest genus, the varied cortinars of the genus Cortinarius. Other notable genera include Hebeloma ,Gymnopilus, Galerina and Inocybe. Several genera, such as the skin-heads (Dermocybe) and Rozites appear to lie within Cortinarius as it now stands. [more]
Crepidotaceae
Entolomataceae
The Entolomataceae, also known as Rhodophyllacae are a large family of pink spored terrestrial which includes the genera Entoloma, Leptonia, Nolanea, and Clitopilus. Mushrooms in the Entolomataceae typically grow in woodlands or grassy areas and have attached gills, differentiating them from the Pluteaceae which have free gills. [more]
Gigaspermaceae
Plants minute, with upright branches arising from pale, fleshy, subterranean, aphyllous stems. Leaves crowded distally, broadly concave, ovate, elliptic to obovate costa single or absent; cell walls of lamina often thickened at corners. Sexual condition paroicous [synoicous, or occasionally dioicous]. Seta short to moderately elongate. Capsule globose or hemispheric, commonly spongy or wrinkled, immersed or exserted, gymnostomous or cleistocarpous. Calyptra very small, conic [mitrate], fugacious.[1] [more]
Hydnangiaceae
Hygrophoraceae
Traditionally the family Hygrophoraceae, also known as waxy caps or waxcaps, was a of white-spored agarics. Among them are some of the most brightly colored fungi encountered, often in grasslands, forests and mossy areas across the northern hemisphere. [more]
Lycoperdaceae
Lycoperdaceae is a of approximately 150 fungi now known to lie in the Agaricales. Historically they were placed in their own order Lycoperdales. Members of the Lycoperdaceae family are known as the true puffballs. Unlike other types of fungi that hold spores in gills or teeth, puffballs contain the spores inside a layer of tougher outer skin. When a puffball reaches maturity, the tough skin will split open, allowing the billions of spores to be released. [more]
Marasmiaceae
The Marasmiaceae are a family of fungi which have white spores. They mostly have a tough stipe and the capability of shrivelling up during a dry period and later recovering. The widely consumed edible fungi Lentinula edodes, the Shiitake mushroom, Flammulina velutipes the Enokitake and Marasmius oreades, the fairy ring mushroom are members, as well as the prolific Armellaria, Honey fungus. The Madagascan Favolaschia calocera or orange pore fungus, is now an invasive species in New Zealand. [more]
Nidulariaceae
Bird's nest fungi are fungi with that look like egg-filled birds' nests and make up the order the Nidulariales. [more]
Physalacriaceae
Pleurotaceae
Pluteaceae
Pluteaceae is a of small to medium sized mushrooms which have free gill attachment and pink spores. Members of Pluteaceae can be mistaken for members of Entolomatacae but can be distinguished by their angled spores and attached gills. The three genera in the Pluteaceae the widely distributed Volvariella and Pluteus and the rare Chamaeota. [more]
Psathyrellaceae
The Psathyrellaceae is a family of dark-spored that generally have rather soft, fragile fruiting bodies, and are characterized by black or dark brown, rarely reddish, or even pastel colored spore prints. About 50% of the species produce fruiting bodies that dissolve into ink-like ooze when the spores are mature via self digestion (autodigestion). Prior to phylogenetic research based upon DNA comparisons, most of the species that autodigested were previously classified in another family called the Coprinaceae that contained all of the inky cap mushrooms. The reclassification took place because the type species of Coprinus, Coprinus comatus, and a few other species were found to belong to another family, the Agaricaceae. The former group of old Coprinus was split between two families, and the name "Coprinaceae" became a synonym of the Agaricaceae in its 21st century phylogenetic redefinition. Note that in the 1800s and early 1900s the family name Agaricaceae had far broader application, while in the late 1900s it had a narrower application. Ironically, the family name Psathyrellaceae is based upon the subfamily name Psathyrelloideae, that had been classified in the Coprinaceae. The type genus, Psathyrella consists of species that produce fruitbodies do not liquify via autodigestion. Currently Psathyrella is a polyphyletic genus that will be further fragmented and reclassified. Lacrymaria is another genus that does not autodigest its fruitbodies. It is characterized by rough basidiospores and lamellar edges that exude beads of clear liquid when in prime condition, hence the Latin reference, 'lacrym-" to crying (tears). [more]
Pterulaceae
Schizophyllaceae
Schizophyllaceae is a family that only has one . It is easily recognized by its unique hymenium which has many thick gills which are split when the mushroom is dry. Schizophyllaceae cause white rot in hardwoods. [more]
Strophariaceae
The Strophariaceae is a of fungi in the order Agaricales. The species of Strophariaceae have a red-brown to dark brown spore print, 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. [more]
Tricholomataceae
The Tricholomataceae is a large family of within the Agaricales. A classic "wastebasket taxon", the Tricholomataceae is inclusive of any white-, yellow-, or pink-spored genus in the Agaricales not already classified as belonging to the Amanitaceae, Lepiotaceae, Hygrophoraceae, Pluteaceae, or Entolomataceae. [more]
Tulostomataceae
Typhulaceae
At least 311 species and subspecies belong to the Family Typhulaceae.
More info about the Family Typhulaceae may be found here.
References
- ^ Underwood, L.M. (1899). Moulds, mildews and mushrooms: a guide to the systematic study of the Fungi and Mycetozoa and their literature. New York: Henry Holt, 97.
Bibliography
- Fife, A. J. 1980. The affinities of Costesia and Neosharpiella and notes on the Gigaspermaceae (Musci). Bryologist 83: 466-476.
Footnotes
- Ann E. Rushing "Gigaspermaceae". in Flora of North America Vol. 27 Page 202. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org.
Sources
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