Polyporales | |
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Ganoderma applanatum | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Fungi |
Division: | Basidiomycota |
Class: | Agaricomycetes |
Order: |
Polyporales Gäum. (1926) |
Families | |
Cystostereaceae |
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Synonyms | |
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Cystostereaceae
Fomitopsidaceae
Fragiliporiaceae
Ganodermataceae
Meripilaceae
Meruliaceae
Phanerochaetaceae
Polyporaceae
Sparassidaceae
Steccherinaceae
Xenasmataceae
The Polyporales are an order of fungi in the division Basidiomycota. The order includes some (but not all) polypores as well as many corticioid fungi and a few agarics (mainly in the genus Lentinus). Species within the order are saprotrophic, most of them wood-rotters. Those of economic importance include several important pathogens of forest and amenity trees and a few species that cause damage by rotting structural timber. Some of the Polyporales are commercially cultivated and marketed for use as food items or in traditional Chinese medicine.
The order was originally proposed in 1926 by German mycologist Ernst Albert Gäumann to accommodate species within the phylum Basidiomycota producing basidiocarps (fruit bodies) showing a gymnocarpous mode of development (forming the spore-bearing surface externally). As such, the order included the ten families Brachybasidiaceae, Corticiaceae, Clavariaceae, Cyphellaceae, Dictyolaceae, Fistulinaceae, Polyporaceae, Radulaceae, Tulasnellaceae, and Vuilleminiaceae, representing a mix of poroid, corticioid, cyphelloid, and clavarioid fungi.