Fungalpedia – Note 2408, Russulales

 

Russulales Kreisel ex P.M. Kirk, P.F. Cannon & J.C. David

Citation when using this data: Yuan HS et al. 2020 – Fungalpedia, Basidiomycota.

Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank.

Classification: Incertae sedis, Agaricomycetes, Agaricomycotina, Basidiomycota, Fungi

The taxonomic placement of the family was very controversial in earlier days. Pegler (1977) and Singer (1986) agreed with Lotsy (1907) and proposed the family name Russulaceae and placed it in the Agaricales (Smith 1973; Pegler 1977; Singer 1986). Based on Singer (1986), the family possessed a wide range of characters like fleshy (mostly), often vividly coloured basidiocarps with free to decurrent lamellae, heteromerous lamellae trama without clamp-connections, and amyloid basidiospores with distinct ornamentation. These features easily help to distinguish the family from all the other macrofungal families. Similarly, other mycologists like Kreisel (1969) and Kühner (1980) proposed to include the family under Russulales due to the presence of heteromerous trama, and amyloid and ornamented basidiospores. Kirk et al. (2001) fixed the proper placement of the family in Russulales. Recently, a molecular phylogenetic approach confined the family to the “russuloid clade” that consists of a morphologically diverse group of fungi forming a distinct lineage (Hibbett and Thorn 2001; Larsson and Larsson 2003). Finally, to our present knowledge, Russulaceae is classified under Russulales in the class Agaricomycetes (Hibbett et al. 2007).

 

References

Hibbett DS, Binder M, Bischoff JF, Blackwell M, Cannon PF, Eriksson OE, Huhndorf S, James T, Kirk PM, Lücking R, Thorsten Lumbsch H, Lutzoni F, Matheny PB, McLaughlin DJ, Powell MJ, Redhead S, Schoch CL, Spatafora JW, Stalpers JA, Vilgalys R, Aime MC, Aptroot A, Bauer R, Begerow D, Benny GL, Castlebury LA, Crous PW, Dai YC, Gams W, Geiser DM, Griffith GW, Gueidan C, Hawksworth DL, Hestmark G, Hosaka K, Humber RA, Hyde KD, Ironside JE, Kõljalg U, Kurtzman CP, Larsson KH, Lichtwardt R, Longcore J, Miadlikowska J, Miller A, Moncalvo JM, Mozley-Standridge S, Oberwinkler F, Parmasto E, Reeb V, Rogers JD, Roux C, Ryvarden L, Sampaio JP, Schüssler A, Sugiyama J, Thorn RG, Tibell L, Untereiner WA, Walker C, Wang Z, Weir A, Weiss M, White MM, Winka K, Yao YJ, Zhang N 2007 – A higher-level phylogenetic classification of the Fungi. Mycol Res 111:509–547.

Hibbett DS, Thorn RG 2001 – Basidiomycota: Homobasidiomycetes. In: McLaughlin DJ, McLaughlin EG, Lemke PA (eds) Mycota II, Part B, Systematics and Evolution. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp 121–168.

Kreisel H 1969 – Grunzüge eines natürlichen Systems der Pilze, J Cramer Lrhre, pp 1–245.

Kühner R 1980 – Les Hymenomycetes agaricoides. Etude gerenaleet classification. Bull Soc Linn Lyon 49: 1027.

Kirk PM, Cannon PF, David JC, Stalpers JA 2001 – Ainsworth & Bisby’s Dictionary of the Fungi, 9th edn. CABI Publishing, Wallingford.

Larsson E, Larsson KH 2003 – Phylogenetic relationships of russuloid basidiomycetes with emphasis on aphyllophoralean taxa. Mycologia 95:1037–1065.

Lotsy JP 1907 – Vorträgeüber botanische Stammesgeschichte. Gustav Fischer, Jena, pp 1–708.

Pegler DN 1977 – A preliminary agaric flora of East Africa. Kew Bulletin Additional Series VI. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, pp1–615.

Singer R 1986 – The Agaricales in modern taxonomy, 4th edn. Koeltz Scientific Books, Koenigstein, pp 1–981.

Smith AH 1973 – Agaricales and related secotioid Gasteromycetes. In: Ainsworth GC, Sparrow FK, Sussman AS (eds) Vol IVB, The Fungi: An Advanced Treatise. Academic Press, New York, pp 421–450.

 

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

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