Fungalpedia – Note 3256, Strophariaceae
Strophariaceae Singer & A.H. Sm., Mycologia 38(5): 503 (1946).
Citation when using this data: He MQ et al. 2024 – Fungalpedia.
Index Fungorum, Facesoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank.
Classification: Agaricineae, Agaricales, Agaricomycetidae, Agaricomycetes, Agaricomycotina, Basidiomycota, Dikarya, Fungi.
Strophariaceae sensu stricto, as was conceived by Matheny et al. (2006), has been modified over time. Formerly it was composed of the following genera: Agrocybe, Deconica, Hypholoma, Kuehneromyces, Pholiota, and Stropharia. Then, in Tian and Matheny (2021), two genera, Bogbodia and Pyrrhulomyces, were added. Later, in Varga et al. (2019), Deconica and Kueheneromyces were placed outside the Strophariaceae sensu stricto. The clade named Strophariaceae sensu stricto by Varga et al. (2019) was consistent across multiple trees and highly supported and included: Bogbodia, Clavogaster, Leratiomyces, Phaeonematoloma, Pholiota, Protostropharia, Hypholoma, and Stropharia. Kalichman et al. (2020) followed Varga et al. (2019) but with the addition of Pyrrhulomyces in Strophariaceae. In the phylogenomic tree of this work, not all the genera previously considered in the family were sampled, thus the clade that could correspond to Strophariaceae sensu stricto, in this case highly supported, was formed only by: Hypholoma, Pholiota, and Stropharia. If we follow Matheny et al. (2006) and the results obtained here, Deconica could also be part of this family; however, support for this node of Strophariaceae, including Deconica, is moderately low (79%) in our phylogenomic tree (He MQ et al. 2024). Basal to this clade were Flammula and Hebeloma, but with the inclusion of wider taxonomic sampling, these relationships could change. Finally, Agrocybe that was considered in Strophariaceae is polyphyletic (Matheny et al. 2006, Vizzini et al. 2014), with at least four lineages. In our phylogenomic tree (He MQ et al. 2024), one of these lineages, Agrocybe pediades, is the sister group to Psilocybe. Another sampled lineage is labeled Cyclocybe [e.g., C. aegerita (V. Brig.) Vizzini (= Agrocybe aegerita (V. Brig.) Singer)], which resulted as a sister group of Crepidotus and Tubaria.
Placement of Gymnopilus has always been problematic; sensu Singer (1986) it was a Cortinariaceae based on the ornamentation of the basidiospores, but for Kühner (1980) it was Strophariaceae due to the styrilpyrones found in these mainly lignicolous mushrooms. Matheny et al. (2006) found it in its own clade, Gymnopileae, basal of a clade that included Crepidotaceae, Hymenogastraceae, Inocybaceae, Panaeoleae, Strophariaceae sensu stricto, and Tubarieae. Then, based again in Varga et al. (2019), Kalichman et al. (2020) considered Gymnopilus as part of Hymenogastraceae sensu lato, result also found here, or in need of a new family as already mentioned, along with Psilocybe and others.
In future works it is necessary to include all the members of Hymenogastraceae sensu lato, since in the phylogenomic tree presented here only 10 genera of the 28 tentatively considered in the family were sampled. Therefore, it is still difficult to make precise decisions about the correct placement of the genera involved, whether they belong to two or more families.
Type genus: Stropharia (Fr.) Quél. 1872.
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Strophariaceae.
References
Kühner R 1980 – Les Hyménomycètes agaricoides. Bulletin Mensuel de la Société Linnéenne de Lyon, Lyon.
Singer R 1986 – The Agaricales in Modern Taxonomy. 4th ed. Koeltz Scientific Books, Koegnistein.
Entry by
Mao-Qiang He, State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, People’s Republic of China.
Published online 18 September 2026.