The Irpicaceae are a

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

of mostly

polypore Polypores are a group of fungi that form large fruiting bodies with pores or tubes on the underside (see Delimitation for exceptions). They are a morphological group of basidiomycetes-like gilled mushrooms and hydnoid fungi, and not all polypor ...

s and

crust fungi The corticioid fungi are a group of fungi in the Basidiomycota typically having effused, smooth basidiocarps (fruit bodies) that are formed on the undersides of dead tree trunks or branches. They are sometimes colloquially called crust fungi or pa ...

in the order

Polyporales The Polyporales are an order of about 1800 species of fungi in the division Basidiomycota. The order includes some (but not all) polypores as well as many corticioid fungi and a few agarics (mainly in the genus ''Lentinus''). Many species within ...

Taxonomy

The family 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 ...

in 2003 by mycologists Viacheslav Spirin and Ivan Zmitrovich. The

type genus In biological taxonomy, the type genus is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name. Zoological nomenclature According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearing type of a nominal f ...

is '' Irpex''. Later multi-gene

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 ...

analyses of the Polyporales supported the use of this family. In these analyses, Irpicaceae is a

sister taxon In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and t ...

to the

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 ...

; these two families, as well as the

Phanerochaetaceae The Phanerochaetaceae are a family of mostly crust fungi in the order Polyporales. Taxonomy Phanerochaetaceae was first conceived by Swedish mycologist John Eriksson in 1958 as the subfamily Phanerochaetoideae of the Corticiaceae. It was later ...

, form the phlebioid

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

Description

Irpicaceae has both

and

. They have a monomitic

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, containing only generative hyphae that do not have

clamp connection A clamp connection is a hook-like structure formed by growing hyphal cells of certain fungi. It is a characteristic feature of Basidiomycetes fungi. It is created to ensure that each cell, or segment of hypha separated by septa (cross walls), rece ...

s. Their

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 ...

are thin-walled, smooth, and

translucent In the field of optics, transparency (also called pellucidity or diaphaneity) is the physical property of allowing light to pass through the material without appreciable scattering of light. On a macroscopic scale (one in which the dimensions a ...

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 often 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 ...

. More rarely, some species are dimitic and/or with cystidia and/or clamp-connections present; for example, ''Emmia'' and ''Irpex'' have cystidia, and there are clamp connections in ''Gloeoporus''. Irpicaceae fungi produce a white-rot, except for one brown-rot genus (''Leptoporus'').

Genera

*''

Byssomerulius ''Byssomerulius'' is a widely distributed genus of crust fungi. Taxonomy ''Byssomerulius'' was circumscribed by Estonian mycologist Erast Parmasto in 1967. Although traditionally classified in the family Phanerochaetaceae, recent molecular phylo ...

'' Parmasto (1967) – 9 species *'' Ceriporia'' Donk (1933) – 57 species *'' Efibula'' Sheng H.Wu (1990) – 16 species *'' Emmia'' Zmitr., Spirin & Malysheva (2006) *'' Flavodon'' Ryvarden (1973) – 3 species *'' Gloeoporus'' Mont. (1842) – 32 species *''

Hydnopolyporus ''Hydnopolyporus'' is a genus of two species of fungi. The genus was circumscribed in 1962 by English mycologist Derek Reid with '' H. fimbriatus'' as the type species. Although traditionally classified in the family Meripilaceae The Me ...

'' D.A.Reid (1962) – 2 species *'' Leptoporus'' Quél. (1886) – 12 species *'' Meruliopsis'' Bondartsev (1959) – 2 species *'' Trametopsis'' Tomšovský (2008) – 3 species According to Justo and colleagues, several genera from various other Polyporales families contain species that should be in the Irpicaceae, and will need to be reclassified. These include: ''

Candelabrochaete ''Candelabrochaete'' is a genus of crust fungi in the family Phanerochaetaceae. Taxonomy The genus was circumscribed by French mycologist Jacques Boidin in 1970. He originally included two species, '' C. langloisii'', and the type, '' C.& ...

'' ('' C. langloisii'' and '' C. septocystidia''), '' Ceraceomyces'' ('' C. eludens'', '' C. microsporus'', and '' C. serpens''), '' Ceriporia'' ('' C. lacerata''), '' Ceriporiopsis'' ('' C. aneirina'' and '' C. resinascens''), '' Hapalopilus'' ('' H. ochraceolateritius''), ''

Phanerochaete ''Phanerochaete'' is a genus of crust fungi in the family Phanerochaetaceae. Taxonomy The genus was circumscribed by Finnish mycologist Petter Karsten in 1889. Marinus Anton Donk redefined the limits of the genus in two publications in 1957 and ...

'' ('' P. allantospora'', '' P. angustocystidiata'', '' P. exilis'', '' P. ginnsii'', '' P. intertexta'', '' P. leptoderma'', and '' P. xerophila''), and ''

Phlebia ''Phlebia'' is a genus of mostly crust fungi in the family Meruliaceae. The genus has a widespread distribution. ''Phlebia'' species cause white rot. Taxonomy ''Phlebia'' was circumscribed by Swedish mycologist Elias Fries in his 1821 work ''Sy ...

'' ('' P. albida'', '' P. albomellea'', and '' P. nitidula''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q28002246 Irpicaceae Taxa described in 2003