The Clavulinaceae are a

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 ...

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 order

Cantharellales The Cantharellales are an order of fungi in the class Agaricomycetes. The order includes not only the chanterelles (Cantharellaceae), but also some of the tooth fungi (Hydnaceae), clavarioid fungi ( Aphelariaceae and Clavulinaceae), and cor ...

. The family is not well defined, but currently comprises species of clavarioid (club and coral) fungi as well as some corticioid (crust- and patch-forming) fungi. These species are nutritionally diverse, some being ectomycorrhizal, others wood-rotting

saprotroph 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 ( ...

s, others lichenized, and yet others

lichenicolous A lichenicolous fungus is a parasitic fungus that only lives on lichen as the host. A lichenicolous fungus is not the same as the fungus that is the component of the lichen, which is known as a lichenized fungus. They are most commonly specific to ...

(growing on or parasitizing lichens).

Taxonomy

History

The Dutch mycologist Marinus Anton Donk first published the

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...

Clavulinae in 1933 to accommodate

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

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 genus ''

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 ...

'' that had "stichic"

basidia A basidium () is a microscopic sporangium (a spore-producing structure) found on the hymenophore of fruiting bodies of basidiomycete fungi which are also called tertiary mycelium, developed from secondary mycelium. Tertiary mycelium is highly- ...

(basidia with nuclear spindles arranged longitudinally). He considered this feature placed the species concerned closer to the chanterelles (

) than to other clavarioid fungi. In 1961, he raised the tribe to the rank of family, as the Clavulinaceae. In 1968, Estonian mycologist

Erast Parmasto Erast Parmasto (28 October 1928 – 24 April 2012) was a noted Estonian mycologist, bioscientist and botanist and onetime director of the Estonian Institute of Zoology and Botany. Parmasto was born in Nõmme. He became a member of the Estonian I ...

added the corticioid genus '' Clavulicium'' to the family, noting that it had very similar basidia to those found in ''Clavulina''.

Current status

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 ...

, has confirmed the placement of ''Clavulina'' within the Cantharellales, but has not yet addressed the circumscription of the family Clavulinaceae. The corticioid genus '' Membranomyces'' (formerly referred to ''Clavulicium'') is closely related. The lichenized clavarioid genus ''

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 ...

'' is also closely related and has been included within the family. Several species formerly referred to the corticioid genus '' Sistotrema'' may be included, but have not been formally renamed. The genus '' Burgella'', described for a probable anamorph of this latter group is, however, within the family. As such, the Clavulinaceae currently contain 4 genera and over 60 species. The genus '' Clavulicium'' which was formerly placed in the Clavulinaceae was found to belong in the new family Stereopsidaceae.

Distribution and habitat

2007-08-04 Clavulina amethystina 1010103377

Species within the family are unusually diverse in habitat and ecology. Species of ''Clavulina'' are ectomycorrhizal, forming mutually beneficial associations with the roots of living trees and other plants. Species of ''Multiclavula'' are lichens, their

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 ...

typically found scattered on sheets of their associated algae. Species of ''Membranomyces'' and "''Sistotrema''" are presumed to be wood-rotting saprotrophs, typically forming corticioid basidiocarps on the undersides of dead, attached branches or fallen wood. Some of the latter group, however, (including the genus ''Burgella'') often grow on and may parasitize lichens. Collectively, the Clavulinaceae have a cosmopolitan distribution.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2597637 Basidiomycota families Lichen families Taxa named by Marinus Anton Donk Taxa described in 1961