''Podaxis'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

secotioid Secotioid fungi produce an intermediate fruiting body form that is between the mushroom-like hymenomycetes and the closed bag-shaped gasteroid fungi, gasteromycetes, where an evolutionary process of gasteromycetation has started but not run to co ...

fungi in the family

Agaricaceae The Agaricaceae are a family of basidiomycete fungi and include the genus ''Agaricus'', as well as basidiomycetes previously classified in the families Tulostomataceae, Lepiotaceae, and Lycoperdaceae. Taxonomy The family Agaricaceae was publishe ...

. Species, which have the appearance of a "stalked-puffball", have a worldwide distribution, and tend to be found growing solitary or scattered on sandy soils, especially in arid regions. Although close to 50 species have been described, it has been argued that many of them may represent extremes in the natural range of variations found in ''

Podaxis pistillaris ''Podaxis pistillaris'' is a xerophile, xerophilic Agaricaceae, agaric mushroom related to the puffballs and Coprinus, inkcaps. It is commonly known as the desert shaggy mane. It grows to 11 cm tall and thrives in deserts and semi-deserts o ...

''.

Description

Fruiting bodies have the appearance of an unopened '' Coprinus comatus'', with a stipe and a loose, brown to blackish powdery

gleba Gleba (, from Latin ''glaeba, glēba'', "lump") is the fleshy spore-bearing inner mass of certain fungi such as the puffball or stinkhorn. The gleba is a solid mass of spores, generated within an enclosed area within the sporocarp. The conti ...

at maturity.

Basidiospore A basidiospore is a reproductive spore produced by basidiomycete fungi, a grouping that includes mushrooms, shelf fungi, rusts, and smuts. Basidiospores typically each contain one haploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromos ...

s are

obovate The following terms are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade is divided into two or more leaflets) ...

, thick-walled with a large apical pore, and typically 10-17 x 9-12 μm in size.

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

s are present. ''Podaxis'' is a common inhabitant of soil and termite mounds throughout the drier regions of the

tropics The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

and

subtropics The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones immediately to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately ...

of the world. '' P. pistillaris'' is a ground-inhabiting species, but most ''Podaxis'' species in the rest of the world are associated with

termite Termites are a group of detritivore, detritophagous Eusociality, eusocial cockroaches which consume a variety of Detritus, decaying plant material, generally in the form of wood, Plant litter, leaf litter, and Humus, soil humus. They are dist ...

mounds. This includes the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n species ''P. beringamensis''.

Taxonomy

The genus was originally named ''Podaxis'' and circumscribed by

Nicaise Auguste Desvaux Nicaise Auguste Desvaux (28 August 1784 – 12 July 1856) was a French botanist. From 1816 he taught classes in Angers, where from 1817 to 1838 he served as director of its botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''bo ...

in 1809, while

Elias Magnus Fries Elias Magnus Fries (15 August 1794 – 8 February 1878) was a Swedish mycologist and botanist. He is sometimes called the Mycology, "Linnaeus of Mycology". In his works he described and assigned botanical names to hundreds of fungus and li ...

later (1829) called the taxon ''Podaxon''. Although a number of articles have used the latter name, ''Podaxis'' is the preferred name as it has nomenclatorial priority due to its earlier publication. Early suggestions that ''Podaxis'' was related to the genus '' Coprinus'' were later confirmed using

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

analysis based on sequence data of rDNA genes. This research showed that ''Podaxis'' is in a

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

with the species '' Montagnea arenaria'' and '' Agaricus pocillator'', and the genus ''

Leucocoprinus ''Leucocoprinus'' is a genus of fungi in the family Agaricaceae. Its best-known member is the distinctive yellow mushroom ''Leucocoprinus birnbaumii'', which is found in plant pots and greenhouses worldwide. The type species is ''Leucocoprinus ce ...

''. For this reason, ''Podaxis'' was transferred to the family

(order Agaricales) from the now obsolete family name ''Podaxaceae'' (order Podaxales). A section of ''Podaxis'', named ''Parvispora'', was circumscribed to accommodate three species (''P. argentinus'', ''P. longii'' and ''P. microsporus'') with small spores.

Species

Index Fungorum ''Index Fungorum'' is an international project to index all formal names (scientific names) in the fungus kingdom. As of 2015, the project is based at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, one of three partners along with Landcare Research and th ...

accepts 28 species in ''Podaxis'': *'' Podaxis africana'' De Villiers, Eicker & Van der Westh. 1989 – Africa *'' Podaxis algericus'' Pat. 1904 *'' Podaxis anomalus'' Lloyd 1920 *'' Podaxis argentinus'' Speg. 1898 *'' Podaxis axatus'' (Bosc) Massee 1890 *''

Podaxis beringamensis ''Podaxis'' is a genus of secotioid fungi in the family Agaricaceae. Species, which have the appearance of a "stalked-puffball", have a worldwide distribution, and tend to be found growing solitary or scattered on sandy soils, especially in arid ...

'' Priest & M.Lenz 1999 – Australia *'' Podaxis carcinomalis'' (L.f.) Fr. 1829 – Ghana *'' Podaxis chevalieri'' Pat. & Har. 1900 *'' Podaxis deciduus'' Bat. 1951 *'' Podaxis dilabentis'' Bat. 1951 *'' Podaxis emerici'' (Berk.) Massee 1890 *'' Podaxis farlowii'' Massee 1890 *'' Podaxis fastigatus'' Bat. 1951 *'' Podaxis ferrandi'' Mattir. 1913 *'' Podaxis ghattasensis'' Henn. 1898 *'' Podaxis glaziovii'' Henn. 1897 *'' Podaxis gollanii'' Henn. 1901 *'' Podaxis longii'' McKnight 1985 *'' Podaxis macrosporus'' Speg. 1906 *'' Podaxis microporus'' McKnight 1985 *'' Podaxis muelleri'' Henn. 1904 *'' Podaxis patagonicus'' Speg. 1898 *''

'' (L.) Fr. 1829 *'' Podaxis rugospora'' De Villiers, Eicker & Van der Westh. 1989 *'' Podaxis saharianus'' G.Moreno & Mornand 1997 *'' Podaxis senegalensis'' Desv. 1809 *'' Podaxis strobilaceus'' Copel. 1904 *'' Podaxis subterraneus'' S.Ahmad 1941

Uses

The dark purple spores of ''Podaxis'' species are used by Australian aborigines as a face paint. ''Podaxis aegyptiacus'' is used as a common traditional medicine in the

Bamako Bamako is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mali, with a 2022 population of 4,227,569. It is located on the Niger River, near the rapids that divide the upper and middle Niger valleys in the southwestern part of the country. Bamak ...

region of

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

for wound-healing, and water extracts from the mushroom have been shown to have

carbohydrate A carbohydrate () is a biomolecule composed of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O) atoms. The typical hydrogen-to-oxygen atomic ratio is 2:1, analogous to that of water, and is represented by the empirical formula (where ''m'' and ''n'' ...

s with beneficial effects on the

immune system The immune system is a network of biological systems that protects an organism from diseases. It detects and responds to a wide variety of pathogens, from viruses to bacteria, as well as Tumor immunology, cancer cells, Parasitic worm, parasitic ...

in vitro.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4120541 Agaricaceae Agaricales genera Taxa named by Nicaise Auguste Desvaux

Description

Taxonomy

Species

Uses

See also

References