Agaricales: Encyclopedia - Agaricales

Agaricales

Agaricaceae
Amanitaceae
Bolbitiaceae
Cortinariaceae
Crepidotaceae
Entolomataceae
Hygrophoraceae
Omphalotaceae
Pleurotaceae
Pluteaceae
Podaxaceae
Psathyrellaceae
Schizophyllaceae
Strophariaceae
Tricholomataceae

Members of the order Agaricales are some of the most familiar types of mushrooms. They are also known as gilled mushrooms (for their distinctive gills), or agarics (although that name may also be used more narrowly to mean the genus Agaricus). The order has about 4,000 species, or one fourth of all known homobasidiomycetes. They range from the deadly destroying angel to the common button mushroom, from the hallucinogenic fly agaric to the bioluminescent jack-o-lantern mushroom.

Note that many mushrooms, such as chanterelles, have false gills, and are therefore not agarics.

Agaricales - Distribution and habitat

These species are ubiquitous, present at nearly every place in the world except Antarctica. Their habitats vary largely from one species to another.

Agaricales - Characteristics

Basiodiocarps of the agarics are typically fleshy, with a stipe, a pileus (or cap) and lamellae (or gills), where basiodiospores are stored. This is indeed the stereotyped structure of what we would call a mushroom, hence the familiarity of the agarics.

Agaricales - Life cycle

The agarics' life cycle is very much representative of the basiodiomycetes. Clamp connections are present in the dikaryons of several species, but that is not always the case.

Agaricales - Propagation

The agarics always have their basiodiospores ejected from the basidium into the area between gill edges. The spores are then let fall to the ground or carried by the wind.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Agaricales", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki