![Clavaria zollingeri 90973](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Clavaria_zollingeri_90973.jpg)
The clavarioid fungi are a group of
fungi
A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...
in the ''
Basidiomycota
Basidiomycota () is one of two large divisions that, together with the Ascomycota, constitute the subkingdom Dikarya (often referred to as the "higher fungi") within the kingdom Fungi. Members are known as basidiomycetes. More specifically, Basi ...
'' typically having erect, simple or branched
basidiocarps
In fungi, a basidiocarp, basidiome, or basidioma () is the sporocarp of a basidiomycete, the multicellular structure on which the spore-producing hymenium is borne. Basidiocarps are characteristic of the hymenomycetes; rusts and smuts do not ...
(fruit bodies) that are formed on the ground, on decaying vegetation, or on dead wood. They are colloquially called club fungi and coral fungi.
Originally such fungi were referred to the
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 ...
''
Clavaria
''Clavaria'' is a genus of fungi in the family Clavariaceae. Species of ''Clavaria'' produce basidiocarps (fruit bodies) that are either cylindrical to club-shaped or branched and coral-like. They are often grouped with similar-looking species f ...
'' ("clavarioid" means ''Clavaria''-like), but it is now known that clavarioid species are not all closely related. Since they are often studied as a group, it is convenient to retain the informal (non-taxonomic) name of "clavarioid fungi" and this term is frequently used in research papers.
History
''Clavaria'' was one of the original genera created by
Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
in his ''Species Plantarum'' of 1753. It contained all species of fungi with erect, club-shaped or branched (coral-like) fruit bodies, including many that are now referred to the
Ascomycota
Ascomycota is a phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, forms the subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes. It is the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species. The def ...
. Subsequent authors described over 1200 species in the genus. With increasing use of the microscope in the late nineteenth century, most of the ascomycetous members of the genus were recognized as distinct and moved to other genera. ''Clavaria'' was still used for the majority of the basidiomycetous species until
Donk reviewed Dutch species in 1933 (introducing the genera ''
Clavariadelphus'', ''
Ramariopsis
''Ramariopsis'' is a genus of coral fungi in the family Clavariaceae. The genus has a collectively widespread distribution and contains about 40 species. The name means 'having the appearance of '' Ramaria.
Taxonomy
''Ramariopsis'' was original ...
'', and ''
Ramaria
The genus ''Ramaria'' comprises approximately 200 species of coral fungi. Several, such as '' Ramaria flava'', are edible and picked in Europe, though they are easily confused with several mildly poisonous species capable of causing nausea, vomi ...
'' in its modern sense) and
Corner
Corner may refer to:
People
*Corner (surname)
* House of Cornaro, a noble Venetian family (''Corner'' in Venetian dialect)
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*Corner, Alabama, a community in the United States
*Corner Inlet, Victoria, Australia
*Corner River, a tributary of ...
published his world monograph in 1950, introducing most of the remaining modern genera.
[Corner EJH. (1950). ''A monograph of'' Clavaria ''and allied genera''. Cambridge: University Press.] DNA sequencing has since confirmed the diversity of the clavarioid fungi, not only placing species in different genera, but also in different families and orders.
[ ][Humpert AJ. ''et al.'' (2001)]
Molecular phylogenetics of ''Ramaria'' and related genera: evidence from nuclear large subunit and mitochondrial small subunit rDNA sequences.
''Mycologia'' 93: 465-477.
Description and genera
![Clavaria fragilis IKAl 090920 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Clavaria_fragilis_IKAl_090920_1.jpg)
Most clavarioid fungi have simple or branched fruit bodies that are erect (or pendant from wood in the genus ''
Deflexula
''Deflexula'' is a genus of tooth fungi in the family Pterulaceae.
Taxonomy
The genus was circumscribed by British botanist E.J.H. Corner in his 1950 work "''Clavaria'' and Allied Genera". The type species, ''Deflexula fascicularis'', was origina ...
''). The spores are born on the sides of the clubs or branches and the spore-bearing surface is typically smooth or ridged, occasionally warted to weakly spiny.
The largest current genus is ''Ramaria'', which has species with branched fruit bodies and ochre to brownish spores. ''Clavariadelphus'', producing large, club-shaped fruit bodies, is closely related.
[ ''Clavaria'' in its modern sense is restricted to white-spored species, many simple, some branched. It is not clearly distinguished from two related genera, '' Clavulinopsis'' and ''Ramariopsis''.][ The genus '']Typhula
''Typhula'' is a genus of clavarioid fungi in the order Agaricales. Species of ''Typhula'' are saprotrophic, mostly decomposing leaves, twigs, and herbaceous material. Basidiocarps (fruit bodies) are club-shaped or narrowly cylindrical and are ...
'' contains a number of small, sometimes minute species with simple fruit bodies. Smaller genera of clavarioid fungi include ''Alloclavaria
''Alloclavaria'' is a clavarioid genus in the Hymenochaetales recently segregated from '' Clavaria'' by molecular analysis. Phylogenetically related fungi are in the agaricoid genera ''Rickenella'', ''Contumyces'', ''Gyroflexus'', ''Loreleia'', ' ...
'', '' Aphelaria'', ''Artomyces
''Artomyces'' is a genus of coral fungi in the family Auriscalpiaceae. It was circumscribed by Walter Jülich in 1982, who set '' Artomyces pyxidatus'' (formerly ''Clavaria pyxidata'' Pers. 1794) as the type species.
Species
*'' Artomyces adri ...
'', '' Chaetotyphula'', ''Clavariachaete
''Clavariachaete'' is a genus of fungi in the family Hymenochaetaceae
The ''Hymenochaetaceae'' are a family of fungi in the order Hymenochaetales. The family contains several species that are implicated in many diseases of broad-leaved and co ...
'', ''Clavicorona
''Clavicorona'' is a fungal genus in the family Auriscalpiaceae. The genus was first described by Maxwell Stanford Doty in 1947, who included the species ''C. pyxidata'', ''C. cristata'', ''C. taxophila'', and ''C. candelabrum''. ...
'', ''Clavulina
''Clavulina'' is a genus of fungus in the family Clavulinaceae, in the Cantharelloid clade (order Cantharellales). Species are characterized by having extensively branched fruit bodies, white spore prints, and bisterigmate basidia (often with s ...
'', ''Ertzia
''Ertzia'' is a monospecific genus in the family Lepidostromataceae (the only family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriag ...
'', ''Lachnocladium
''Lachnocladium'' is a genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species an ...
'', ''Lentaria
''Lentaria'' is a genus of fungi in the family Lentariaceae. The genus has a widespread distribution and contains 17 species. It was circumscribed by British mycologist Edred John Henry Corner in 1950.
Many members are important decomposers in f ...
'', ''Lepidostroma
''Lepidostroma'' is a genus in the family Lepidostromataceae (the only family within the fungal order Lepidostromatales). The genus is distinguished from all other lichenized clavarioid fungi (''Multiclavula'' (''Cantharellales''), ''Ertzia'' ...
'', ''Multiclavula
''Multiclavula'' is a genus of basidiolichens in the family Hydnaceae. The widespread genus contains 14 species.Reschke, K., Lotz-Winter, H., Fischer, C.W., Hofmann, T.A., Piepenbring, M., 2021. New and interesting species of Agaricomycetes from ...
'', ''Pterula
''Pterula'' is a genus of fungi in the '' Pterulaceae'' family. The genus has a widespread distribution, especially in tropical regions, and contains about 50 species.
One such species, ''Pterula sp. 82168'', has yielded potential antifungal anti ...
'', ''Scytinopogon
''Trechispora'' is a genus of fungi in the family Hydnodontaceae. Basidiocarps (fruit bodies) are variously corticioid (effused, patch-forming) or clavarioid (branched and coral-like) with spore-bearing surfaces that are variously smooth to hydn ...
'', and '' Sulzbacheromyces''.
Habitat and distribution
Most clavarioid fungi are saprotrophic
Saprotrophic nutrition or lysotrophic nutrition is a process of chemoheterotrophic extracellular digestion involved in the processing of decayed (dead or waste) organic matter. It occurs in saprotrophs, and is most often associated with fungi ( ...
with a terrestrial habit, growing in woodland leaf litter or in mossy grassland. A few grow on wood or on decaying herbaceous stems and fallen leaves. Some species, particularly in the genera ''Clavulina'' and ''Ramaria'', are known to be ectomycorrhizal (forming a beneficial association with the roots of living trees). Species in the genera ''Ertzia'', ''Multiclavula'', ''Lepidostroma'', and ''Sulzbacheromyces'' are lichenized and grow in association with algae
Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...
.
Clavarioid fungi have a worldwide distribution, though some genera—such as ''Aphelaria'' and ''Lachnocladium''—are principally tropical. They are one of the most common of the four fungi groupings.
References
{{reflist
Fungal morphology and anatomy
Basidiomycota