The Entolomataceae, also known as Rhodophyllaceae, are a large family of pink-spored terrestrial

gilled mushrooms The fungal order Agaricales, also known as gilled mushrooms (for their distinctive gills) or euagarics, contains some of the most familiar types of mushrooms. The order has 33 extant families, 413 genera, and over 13,000 described species, along ...

which includes the genera ''

Entoloma ''Entoloma'' is a large genus of terrestrial pink-gilled mushrooms, with about 1,000 species. Most have a drab appearance, pink gills which are attached to the stem, a smooth thick cap, and angular spores. Many entolomas are saprobic but some ...

'', '' Rhodocybe'', and ''

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) ...

''. The family collectively contains over 1500 species, the large majority of which are in ''Entoloma''. Genera formerly known as ''Leptonia'' and ''Nolanea'', amongst others, have been subsumed into ''Entoloma''. Mushrooms in the Entolomataceae typically grow in woodlands or grassy areas and have attached gills, differentiating them from the

Pluteaceae The Pluteaceae are a family of small to medium-sized mushrooms which have free gill attachment and pink spores. Members of Pluteaceae can be mistaken for members of Entolomataceae, but can be distinguished by the angled spores and attached gill ...

, which have free gills.

Description

The very large family Entolomataceae has a cosmopolitan distribution, and species are common in both

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 ...

and

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

climates. Although the shape of the fruiting body and many microscopic characteristics are very diverse, it forms a well-defined group due to the distinctive spores: the spore print is pink (or brownish or greyish pink) and the spores are ornamented with bumps or ridges, or have a sharp-pointed polygonal cross-section. The spore ornamentation is formed by a unique form of spore-wall thickening, which is called the epicorium. One notable member is the edible Miller mushroom (''

Clitopilus prunulus ''Clitopilus prunulus'', commonly known as the miller or the sweetbread mushroom, is an edible pink-spored basidiomycete mushroom found in grasslands in Europe and North America. Growing solitary to gregarious in open areas of conifer/hardwood f ...

''). Many members of the Entolomataceae are poisonous and most are very obscure and difficult to identify properly. Examples are the poisonous

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 specime ...

of ''Entoloma'', ''

Entoloma sinuatum ''Entoloma sinuatum'' ( commonly known as the livid entoloma, livid agaric, livid pinkgill, leaden entoloma, and lead poisoner) is a poisonous mushroom found across Europe and North America. Some guidebooks refer to it by its older scientific ...

'', found in Europe and North America, and '' E. rhodopolium'' in Europe and Japan.

History and constituent genera

The family Entolomataceae was first defined by the Czech mycologists František Kotlaba and Zdenek Pouzar in 1972. Although the family as a whole is quite well defined, many different internal classifications of the Entolomataceae have been proposed. Please see List of Entolomataceae genera for a table of the main genera which have been placed in this family at one time or another. The current view is that Entolomataceae with angular (polyhedral) spores should be classified in genus ''

'', those with bumpy spores should be in '' Rhodocybe'', and those with longitudinally ridged spores should be put in ''

''. This makes ''Entoloma'' an enormous genus, and in the past attempts have been made to split it up. In 1871, Paul Kummer created ''Eccilia'', '' Leptonia'' and '' Nolanea'' to this end at the same time as ''Entoloma'', but DNA studies show these former groups are not natural (they are

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of conver ...

) and according to modern thinking they should not be accepted. Furthermore, the study by Co-David et al. indicated ''Rhodocybe'' and ''Clitopilus'' are not distinguishable as genera and need to be merged. Since the name ''Clitopilus'' has historical precedence, all the ''Rhodocybe'' species should in future be moved into ''Clitopilus''. This paper gives excellent scanning electron micrographs which allow the three-dimensional spore shapes to be understood. Most surprising are the new genera '' Rhodocybella'', ''Rhodogaster'', and ''Richoniella'', the first being

cyphelloid The cyphelloid fungi are a group of fungi in the Basidiomycota that have disc-, tube-, or cup-shaped basidiocarps (fruit bodies), resembling species of discomycetes (or "cup fungi") in the Ascomycota. They were originally referred to the genus '' ...

and the other two

gasteroid The gasteroid fungi are a group of fungi in the Basidiomycota. Species were formerly placed in the obsolete class Gasteromycetes Fr. (literally "stomach fungi"), or the equally obsolete order Gasteromycetales Rea, because they produce spores i ...

. They are rare and only contain a few species, but they are of great interest because although their body plans are superficially very different from those of the

agarics An agaric () is a type of fungus fruiting body characterized by the presence of a pileus (cap) that is clearly differentiated from the stipe (stalk), with lamellae (gills) on the underside of the pileus. In the UK, agarics are called "mushrooms ...

which constitute the bulk of the family, recent studies have shown they are closely related. The modern trend is even to move them into the same genera as the related agarics. '' Entocybe'' was circumscribed in 2011 to contain several former ''Entoloma'' species having obscurely angular basidiospore with 6–10 angles (some formerly classified as ''Rhodocybe''). In a revised classification of the ''Rhodocybe''-''Clitopilus'' clade, Kluting and colleagues introduced the new genus '' Clitocella'', and resurrected ''Clitopilopsis'' and ''Rhodophana'' (formerly synonyms of ''Rhodocybe'').

References

External links

Machiel Noordeloos on ''Entoloma'' & ''Rhodocybe''

{{Taxonbar, from=Q608643 Entolomataceae

Description

History and constituent genera

See also

References

External links