Fungi with Basidia and Basidiospores Usually in Fruitbodies: Eumycota Subdivision Basidiomycotina

Abstract

Although some Basidiomycotina exist mainly in the form of mycelia or as small fructifications on wood or litter, or under clods of soil, the majority form conspicuous fruitbodies (basidiocarps). Since these are often noticed and collected they have been given common names which describe their morphological forms. For instance, we speak of the rusts and smuts, jelly fungi, club fungi, brackets, mushrooms, puffballs, phalloids and earthstars. But the various fungi having any one of these forms of fruitbody are not necessarily related, and indeed some of these forms are encountered among Ascomycotina as well. Such fruitbodies are all examples of the phenomenon of homoplasy, the production of similar morphological forms along several unrelated phyletic lines. The different types of fruitbody, then, represent various solutions to common problems of existence in terrestrial fungi, especially those relating to efficient liberation and dispersal of spores. In passing it may be noted that only one or two species of Basidiomycotina are known to occur in water, and they do not form basidiocarps.