''Crepidotus'' 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 ...

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 family

Crepidotaceae The Crepidotaceae are a family of basidiomycete fungi. Taxonomic Details The Crepidotaceae have recently undergone a revision based on phylogenetic analyses. The following characters are typical of this family: * saprotrophic on woody or herbac ...

. Species of ''Crepidotus'' all have small, convex to fan-shaped

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

caps and grow on wood or plant debris. The genus has been studied extensively, and

monograph A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject. In library cataloging, ''monograph ...

s of the North American, European and Neotropical species have been published. ''Crepidotus'' means ''cracked ear''.

Description

Members of this genus are small, convex to fan-shaped, and

. Species have cheilocystidia Spore prints are yellow-brown to brown. All species of ''Crepidotus'' are known to be secondary decomposers of plant matter; most are saprobic on wood. Little is known about the edibility of various species; the usually small and insubstantial specimens discourage

mycophagy Fungivory or mycophagy is the process of organisms consuming fungi. Many different organisms have been recorded to gain their energy from consuming fungi, including birds, mammals, insects, plants, amoebas, gastropods, nematodes, bacteria and othe ...

Taxonomy

Elias Magnus Fries Elias Magnus Fries (15 August 1794 – 8 February 1878) was a Swedish mycologist and botanist. Career Fries was born at Femsjö (Hylte Municipality), Småland, the son of the pastor there. He attended school in Växjö. He acquired ...

first

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 ...

''Crepidotus'' in 1821 as a tribe in the genus ''Agaricus'', although he later (1836–1838) revised his concept. In 1857, Staude elevated Tribus ''Crepidotus'' to a genus, with ''Agaricus mollis'' (Schaeff) as 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 ...

. Early descriptions of the genus contained between six and forty-six species, depending on the author. In 1947, Rolf Singer wrote a monograph about the genus, and unlike prior treatments, used microscopic characters to help delineate infrageneric (i.e., below genus-level classification) relationships. Based on his revisions, the genus included 30 species. Soon after, Pilát (1950) extended Singer's monograph, including additional species to bring the total species to 75. However, many of his ''Crepidotus'' taxa would later be transferred to other genera. Currently, approximately 150 species are widely accepted, although many more have been described.

Phylogeny

Modern

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

analysis using sequencing data from the

28S 28S ribosomal RNA is the structural ribosomal RNA (rRNA) for the LSU rRNA, large subunit (LSU) of eukaryotic cytoplasmic ribosomes, and thus one of the basic components of all eukaryotic cells. It has a size of 25S in plants and 28S in mammals, ...

rRNA Ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) is a type of non-coding RNA which is the primary component of ribosomes, essential to all cells. rRNA is a ribozyme which carries out protein synthesis in ribosomes. Ribosomal RNA is transcribed from ribosoma ...

gene region shows that ''Crepidotus'' is

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 ...

, and that Singer's original concept for the genus may be too narrowly defined. This research showed that a natural evolutionary lineage results if some ''Pleurotellus'' species and several taxa formerly aligned with ''Melanomphalia'' are included in the generic description.

Distribution

''Crepidotus'' species are cosmopolitan in distribution, and are well-documented from the Northern

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

n regions.

Species list

Historically, many species of ''Crepidotus'' have been described due to differences in single morphological character traits. Phylogenetic analysis is showing that these morphological differences are often due to phenotypic plasticity — species may adapt to different environments by assuming variations in growth forms. Recent taxonomic revisions have shown that several species formerly considered unique are conspecific. Further study is required to more accurately delineate infrageneric relationships in this taxa. List of species from Index Fungorum (synonyms omitted)

Gallery

White Mushroom, Crepidotus applanatus (556317385).jpg, '' C. applanatus'' Crepidotus calolepis 313277.jpg, '' C. calolepis'' Crepidotus caspari- Björn Bråvander01.jpg, '' C. caspari'' Crepidotus spec. - Lindsey 2.jpg, '' C. cesatii'' Crepidotus cinnabarinus Peck 551094.jpg, '' C. cinnabarinus'' Crepidotus crocophyllus 58074986.jpg, '' C. crocophyllus'' Crepidotus epibryus (Cortinariaceae), Culemborg, the Netherlands.jpg, '' C. epibryus'' Crepidotus fimbriatus, Hartelholz, Múnich, Alemania, 2020-11-28, DD 333-378 FS.jpg, '' C. fimbriatus'' Crepidotus luteolus a1 (1).JPG, '' C. luteolus'' Crepidotus malachius - Guelph, Ontario 2020-07-26 (02).jpg, '' C. malachius'' Crepidotus mollis 15063103.jpg, '' C. mollis'' Crepidotus novae-zelandiae-Jerry Cooper IWS specimen.png, '' C. novae-zelandiae'' Crepidotus nyssicola (Murrill) Singer 950845.jpg, '' C. nyssicola'' ¿ - Crepidotus - Pleurotus - ? sp. (5174244756).jpg, '' C. pleurotus'' Crepidotus spec. Praecipuus 1.jpg, '' C. praecipuus'' Crepidotus roseus Singer 579861.jpg, '' C. roseus'' Crepidotus subverrucisporus Pilát 3380797325.jpg, '' C. subverrucisporus'' Crepidotus spec. - Lindsey 4b.jpg, '' C. variabilis'' Crepidotus versutus.JPG, '' C. versutus''

References

External links

*
Crepidotus
' at Index Fungorum {{Taxonbar, from=Q1860430 Crepidotaceae Taxa named by Elias Magnus Fries