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Tooth fungi


The hydnoid fungi are a group of fungi in the Basidiomycota with basidiocarps (fruit bodies) producing spores on pendant, tooth-like or spine-like projections. They are colloquially called tooth fungi. Originally such fungi were referred to the genus Hydnum ("hydnoid" means Hydnum-like), but it is now known that not all hydnoid species are closely related.

Hydnum was one of the original genera created by Linnaeus in his Species Plantarum of 1753. It contained all species of fungi with fruit bodies bearing pendant, tooth-like projections. Subsequent authors described around 900 species in the genus. With increasing use of the microscope, it became clear that not all tooth fungi were closely related and most Hydnum species were gradually moved to other genera. The Dutch mycologist Rudolph Arnold Maas Geesteranus paid particular attention to the group, producing a series of papers reviewing the taxonomy of hydnoid fungi.

The original genus Hydnum is still current, but is now restricted to the type species, Hydnum repandum, and its relatives in the order Cantharellales. Other species originally described in Hydnum have been reassigned to various genera in various orders including the Agaricales, Auriculariales, Gomphales, Hymenochaetales, Polyporales, Russulales, Thelephorales and Trechisporales.


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