''Rhodocybe'' is a small genus of small and medium-sized brownish-pink spored mushrooms, or (following recent

mycological Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy and their use to humans, including as a source for tinder, traditional medicine, food, and entheogens, as w ...

research) it is a subgroup of genus ''

Clitopilus ''Clitopilus'' is a genus of fungi in the family Entolomataceae. The genus has a widespread distribution, especially in northern temperate areas. Although a 2008 estimate suggested about 30 species in the genus, a more recent publication (2009) u ...

''. These mushrooms 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 (f ...

and most grow on the ground, but some are found on wood. Most are drab in appearance, though a few have vivid colors.

Description

The cap shape can be convex, plane, or depressed. The gills usually have

adnate Adnate may refer to: * Adnation, in botany, the fusion of two or more whorls of a flower * Adnate, in mycology, a classification of lamellae (gills) * Conjoined twins Conjoined twins – sometimes popularly referred to as Siamese twins – are ...

decurrent ''Decurrent'' (sometimes decurring) is a term used in botany and mycology to describe plant or fungal parts that extend downward. In botany, the term is most often applied to leaf blades that partly wrap or have wings around the stem or petio ...

attachment, rarely notched and the stems of the mushrooms are highly variable, but always lack a veil or volva. The spores are flesh-colored to salmon to brownish pink. Microscopically the shape of the spores is important in defining the group. About 20 species of ''Rhodocybe'' have been documented in Europe, but ''R. gemina'' (sometimes wrongly named ''R. truncata'') is the commonest and best known, though rare in Britain. The type species is ''Rhodocybe caelata'' (Fr.) Maire. Little is known about the edibility of ''Rhodocybes'', but one prominent mushroom guide indicates that ''R. gemina'' (or ''Clitopilus geminus'') is good to eat.

Taxonomic status

The group belongs to family ''

Entolomataceae The Entolomataceae, also known as Rhodophyllaceae, are a large family of pink-spored terrestrial gilled mushrooms which includes the genera ''Entoloma'', '' Rhodocybe'', and ''Clitopilus''. The family collectively contains over 1500 species, the ...

'' (with pink spore print and angular spores) and the members are similar to some ''Entoloma'' or ''Clitopilus'' species, being distinguished by spore shape; essentially ''Entoloma'' spores are polyhedral (angular in all views), ''Clitopilus'' spores have longitudinal ridges, and ''Rhodocybes'' spores are angular when viewed on end but bumpy to weakly angular when viewed from the side. But in 2009, CoDavid et al. found that ''Clitopilus'' species form a clade nested within the ''Rhodocybe'' species and proposed that these genera should be merged so that the new genus would be

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 ...

. Since the name ''Clitopilus'' is older, it takes precedence and the name ''Rhodocybe'' should be dropped. Rhodocybe is divided into four subsections - ''Rhodocybe'', ''Rhodophana'' (now considered a separate genus according to

Species 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 Mi ...

and a paper of 2013), ''Decurrentes'', and ''Rufobrunneua''.

References

One hundred and seventeen clades of euagarics. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5228916 Entolomataceae Taxa named by René Maire Taxa described in 1926