Fungalpedia – Note 2397, Lentaria
Lentaria Corner
Citation when using this data: Yuan HS et al. 2020 – Fungalpedia, Basidiomycota.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig. 1
Classification: Lentariaceae, Gomphales, Phallomycetidae, Agaricomycetes, Agaricomycotina, Basidiomycota, Fungi
Initially, Lentaria included clavarioid species, simple or branched, with smooth, hyaline spores, ellipsoid to allantoid and phycophile or saprotrophic habitat. Phycophile species were later segregated in the genus Multiclavula (Petersen 1967). Nowadays, Lentaria species are recognized for developing coralloid basidiocarps and being saprotrophic, with humicolous or lignicolous habits. The basidiocarps emerge from a subiculum, superficial or immersed on the substrate. The spores are hyaline, ellipsoid to sigmoid, smooth and thin-walled and the hyphal system is monomitic. However, it has been hypothesized that the genus is polyphyletic (Binder et al. 2010; Liu et al. 2017b). Twenty-three species have been described, of which five are tropical.
Type species: Lentaria surculus (Berk.) Corner, Monograph of Clavaria and allied Genera, (Annals of Botany Memoirs No. 1): 444 (1950).
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Lentaria.
Figure 1 – Basidiocarps of Lentaria gossypina (Pictures, Ramírez-López I.). a (FCME 27622). b (FCME 2796, holotype). Microscopic structures (FCME 2796, holotype). c Basidiospores. d Subiculum hyphae. Scale bars: a–b = 10 mm, c–d = 1 mm
References
Petersen RH 1967 – Notes on clavarioid fungi. VII. Redefinition of the Clavaria vernalis, C. mucida complex. American Midland Naturalist 77:205–221.
Entry by
Hai-Sheng Yuan, CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110164, People’s Republic of China, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China
Published online 5 May 2026