''Bjerkandera'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of wood-rotting fungi in the family

Meruliaceae The Meruliaceae are a family of fungi in the order Polyporales. According to a 2008 estimate, the family contains 47 genera and 420 species. , Index Fungorum accepts 645 species in the family. Taxonomy The family was formally circumscribed by E ...

Taxonomy

The genus was

circumscribed In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a polygon is a circle that passes through all the vertices of the polygon. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter and its radius is called the circumradius. Not every polyg ...

by Finnish mycologist

Petter Adolf Karsten Petter Adolf Karsten (16 February 1834 – 22 March 1917) was a Finnish mycologist, the foremost expert on the fungi of Finland in his day, and known in consequence as the "father of Finnish mycology". Karsten was born in Merimasku near Turku, st ...

in 1879. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

, '' B. adusta'', was originally described as ''Boletus adustus'' by

Carl Ludwig Willdenow Carl Ludwig Willdenow (22 August 1765 – 10 July 1812) was a German botanist, pharmacist, and plant taxonomist. He is considered one of the founders of phytogeography, the study of the geographic distribution of plants. Willdenow was als ...

in 1787. The generic name honours Swedish naturalist

Clas Bjerkander Clas Bjerkander (23 September 1735, Skara – 1 August 1795) was a Swedish meteorologist, botanist, and entomologist. A Lutheran pastor, Bjerkander studied at the University of Uppsala. With Anders Dahl he wrote ''Svenska Topographiska Sällskape ...

. Karsten included seven species in addition to the type: '' B. dichroa'', '' B. amorpha'', '' B. fumosa'', '' B. kymatodes'', ''B. diffusa'', and ''B. isabellina''. Most of those species have been since moved to different genera or synonymized. In a 1913 survey of polypore genera,

Adeline Ames Adeline Sarah Ames (1879–1976) was an American mycologist who specialized in the study of mycelium. Biography Born October 6, 1879, in Henderson, York County, Nebraska, Ames was the eldest of four children of Elwyn Ames and Hettie Owen Ames ...

included ''B. adusta'', ''B. fumosa'', and '' B. puberula''; the latter fungus is now placed in '' Abortiporus''.

Marinus Anton Donk Marinus Anton Donk (14 August 1908 – 2 September 1972) was a Dutch mycologist. He specialized in the taxonomy and nomenclature of mushrooms. Rolf Singer wrote in his obituary that he was "one of the most outstanding figures of contemporary myc ...

included only ''B. adusta'' and ''B. fumosa'' in a 1974 publication. Some authors have suggested to merge these two species into other genera, such as '' Gloeoporus'', '' Tyromyces'', or ''

Grifola ''Grifola'' is a genus of fungi in the family Meripilaceae, which includes some edible fungi such as ''Grifola frondosa'', commonly known as hen-of-the-woods (or maitake in Japan); not to be confused with ''Laetiporus sulphureus'', known among En ...

''.

Molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

analysis has demonstrated that the two traditional ''Bjerkandera'' fungi form a

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

group that is

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...

to the crust fungus ''

Terana coerulea ''Terana'' is a fungal genus in the family Phanerochaetaceae. It is a monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include ...

''. The little-known Cuban species '' B. subsimulans'' and '' B. terebrans'', both originally described by

Miles Berkeley Miles Joseph Berkeley (1 April 1803 – 30 July 1889) was an English cryptogamist and clergyman, and one of the founders of the science of plant pathology. Life Berkeley was born at Biggin Hall, Benefield, Northamptonshire, and educated at R ...

and

Moses Ashley Curtis Moses Ashley Curtis (11 May 1808 – 10 April 1872) was a noted American botanist. Biography Curtis was born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts and educated at Williams College in Massachusetts. After graduating, he became a tutor for the children of ...

, were transferred to ''Bjerkandera'' by

William Alphonso Murrill William Alphonso Murrill (October 13, 1869 – December 25, 1957) was an American mycologist, known for his contributions to the knowledge of the Agaricales and Polyporaceae. In 1904, he became the assistant Curator at the New York Botanical Ga ...

in 1907, and are accepted as valid species by

Index Fungorum ''Index Fungorum'' is an international project to index all formal names ( scientific names) in the fungus kingdom. the project is based at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, one of three partners along with Landcare Research and the Institute of M ...

. '' Bjerkandera atroalba'' and '' B. centroamericana'' are two

neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bioge ...

species that were transferred to ''Bjerkandera'', and described as new, respectively, in 2015. In 2021 four new species were added from South America and Asia.

Description

The

fruit bodies The sporocarp (also known as fruiting body, fruit body or fruitbody) of fungi is a multicellular structure on which spore-producing structures, such as basidia or asci, are borne. The fruitbody is part of the sexual phase of a fungal life cyc ...

of ''Bjerkandera'' fungi have soft and pliable

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

with an upper surface texture ranging from finely hairy to smooth. The pore surface on the undersurface of the cap ranges from grey to black or buff to greyish brown. The tubes are the same colour. A dark, denser zone is typically present between tubes and the

context Context may refer to: * Context (language use), the relevant constraints of the communicative situation that influence language use, language variation, and discourse summary Computing * Context (computing), the virtual environment required to su ...

, which is usually white to buff. The

hypha A hypha (; ) is a long, branching, filamentous structure of a fungus, oomycete, or actinobacterium. In most fungi, hyphae are the main mode of vegetative growth, and are collectively called a mycelium. Structure A hypha consists of one or ...

l system in ''Bjerkandera'' is monomitic, containing only generative hyphae. These hyphae have

clamps Clamp may refer to: Tools and devices *Brick clamp, an early method of baking bricks *Clamp (tool), a device or tool used to hold objects in a fixed relative position (many types listed) **C-clamp **C-clamp (stagecraft) **Riser clamp, a device u ...

, and are thin to thick-walled.

Cystidia A cystidium (plural cystidia) is a relatively large cell found on the sporocarp of a basidiomycete (for example, on the surface of a mushroom gill), often between clusters of basidia. Since cystidia have highly varied and distinct shapes that ar ...

are absent from the

hymenium The hymenium is the tissue layer on the hymenophore of a fungal fruiting body where the cells develop into basidia or asci, which produce spores. In some species all of the cells of the hymenium develop into basidia or asci, while in others some ...

. The

spores In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many plants, algae, f ...

of ''Bjerkandera'' are smooth with a short cylindrical shape, thin-walled, and do not react in

Melzer's reagent Melzer's reagent (also known as Melzer's iodine reagent, Melzer's solution or informally as Melzer's) is a chemical reagent used by mycologists to assist with the identification of fungi, and by phytopathologists for fungi that are plant pathogens ...

Habitat and distribution

''Bjerkandera'' fungi usually grow on

hardwood Hardwood is wood from dicot trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood (which comes from ...

s, and are rarely on

conifer Conifers are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single ...

s. They cause a

white rot A wood-decay or xylophagous fungus is any species of fungus that digests moist wood, causing it to rot. Some species of wood-decay fungi attack dead wood, such as brown rot, and some, such as ''Armillaria'' (honey fungus), are parasitic and col ...

Species

*''

Bjerkandera adusta ''Bjerkandera adusta'', commonly known as the smoky polypore or smoky bracket, is a species of fungus in the family Meruliaceae. It is a plant pathogen that causes Wood-decay fungus#White rot, white rot in live trees, but most commonly appears on ...

'' (Willd.) P.Karst. (1879) *'' Bjerkandera atroalba'' (Rick) Westphalen & Tomšovský (2015) *'' Bjerkandera centroamericana'' Kout, Westphalen & Tomšovský (2015) *'' Bjerkandera ecuadorensis'' Y.C. Dai, Chao G. Wang & Vlasák (2021) *'' Bjerkandera fulgida'' Y.C. Dai & Chao G. Wang (2021) *'' Bjerkandera fumosa'' (Pers.) P.Karst. (1879) *'' Bjerkandera mikrofumosa'' Ryvarden (2016) *'' Bjerkandera minispora'' Y.C. Dai & Chao G. Wang (2021) *'' Bjerkandera resupinata'' Y.C. Dai & Chao G. Wang (2021) *'' Bjerkandera subsimulans'' Murrill (1907) *'' Bjerkandera terebrans'' (Berk. & M.A.Curtis) Murrill (1907)

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2265553 Taxa described in 1879 Meruliaceae Polyporales genera Taxa named by Petter Adolf Karsten