''Macrotyphula'' 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 and below family. In binomial nom ...

clavarioid fungi The clavarioid fungi are a group of fungi in the ''Basidiomycota'' typically having erect, simple or branched basidiocarps (fruit bodies) that are formed on the ground, on decaying vegetation, or on dead wood. They are colloquially called club fun ...

in the

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

Phyllotopsidaceae.

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) are simple, narrowly club-shaped to filiform, sometimes arising from a

sclerotium A sclerotium (; (), is a compact mass of hardened fungal mycelium containing food reserves. One role of sclerotia is to survive environmental extremes. In some higher fungi such as ergot, sclerotia become detached and remain dormant until favor ...

. They typically grow on dead wood or leaf litter, often in swarms.

Taxonomy

The genus was described in 1972 by American mycologist Ronald H. Petersen for '' M. fistulosa'' which he considered morphologically distinct from species in the genus '' Clavariadelphus'' where it had previously been referred. Additional species have subsequently been referred to ''Macrotyphula''. Molecular research, based on

cladistic Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived char ...

analysis of

DNA sequences A nucleic acid sequence is a succession of bases signified by a series of a set of five different letters that indicate the order of nucleotides forming alleles within a DNA (using GACT) or RNA (GACU) molecule. By convention, sequences are us ...

, indicates that the genus is monophyletic and forms a natural group.

The genus ''Sclerotium''

''Sclerotium'' was introduced by the German mycologist and theologian Heinrich Julius Tode in 1790 to accommodate fungal

sclerotia A sclerotium (; (), is a compact mass of hardened fungal mycelium containing food reserves. One role of sclerotia is to survive environmental extremes. In some higher fungi such as ergot, sclerotia become detached and remain dormant until favor ...

(propagules composed of thick-walled hyphae). Over 400 species were subsequently added to this form genus, comprising sclerotia or sclerotia-like entities from a wide range of fungi within the phyla Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. With a move towards a more natural classification of fungi, the genus ''Sclerotium'' was restricted to sclerotial anamorphs of ''Macrotyphula'', since the type species, ''Sclerotium complanatum'', is the anamorph of '' Macrotyphula phacorrhiza''. Other species have been transferred elsewhere. Following changes to the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, the practice of giving different names to teleomorph and anamorph forms of the same fungus was discontinued, meaning that ''Macrotyphula'' should become a synonym of the earlier name ''Sclerotium''. A formal proposal to conserve the genus ''Macrotyphula'' against ''Sclerotium'' is, however, in preparation.

References

Agaricales genera Taxa named by Ron Petersen {{Agaricales-stub

Taxonomy

The genus ''Sclerotium''

See also

References