The
Tricholomataceae are a large
familyIn biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
of
mushroomA mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi that...
s within the
AgaricalesThe fungal order Agaricales, also known as gilled mushrooms , or euagarics, contains some of the most familiar types of mushrooms. The order has 33 extant families, 413 genera, and over 13000 described species, along with five extinct genera known only from the fossil record...
. A classic "wastebasket taxon", the Tricholomataceae is inclusive of any white-, yellow-, or pink-spored
generaGenera is a commercial operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It is essentially a fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with LMI and Texas Instruments...
in the Agaricales not already classified as belonging to the
AmanitaceaeAmanitaceae are a family of fungi or mushrooms. The family, also commonly called the Amanita family, is in order Agaricales, gilled mushrooms...
, Lepiotaceae,
HygrophoraceaeThe Hygrophoraceae are a family of fungi in the order Agaricales. Originally conceived as containing white-spored, thick-gilled agarics , including Hygrophorus and Hygrocybe species , DNA evidence has extended the limits of the family, so that it now contains not only agarics but also...
,
PluteaceaeThe Pluteaceae are a family of small to medium-sized mushrooms which have free gill attachment and pink spores. Members of Pluteaceae can be mistaken for members of Entolomatacae but can be distinguished by their angled spores and attached gills...
, or
EntolomataceaeThe Entolomataceae, also known as Rhodophyllaceae are a large family of pink spored terrestrial gilled mushrooms which includes the genera Entoloma, Rhodocybe, and Clitopilus. The family collectively contains over 1500 species, the large majority of which are in Entoloma...
.
The name derives from the Greek
trichos (τριχος) meaning
hair and
loma (λωμα) meaning
fringe or
border although not all members display this feature.
Arnolds (1986) and Bas (1990) also place the genera of the Hygrophoraceae within this family, however, this classification is not accepted by the majority of fungal taxonomists. (Young, 2003)
Molecular phylogenetic analysis has greatly aided in the demarcation of clear monophyletic groups among the Tricholomataceae. So far, most of these groups have been defined cladistically rather than being defined as formal
LinneanLinnean is closely associated to the alternative spelling Linnaean, and can refer to any of the following all of which are related to the original system of scientific taxonomy of biological species or its author:-Linnaean:*Carolus Linnaeus...
taxa, though there have been several cases in which older proposed segregates from the Tricholomataceae have been validated by evidence coming from molecular
phylogeneticsIn biology, phylogenetics is the study of evolutionary relatedness among groups of organisms , which is discovered through molecular sequencing data and morphological data matrices...
. As of 2006, validly published families segregated from the Tricholomataceae include the
HydnangiaceaeThe Hydnangiaceae are a family of fungi in the order of mushrooms known as the Agaricales. Widespread in temperate and tropical regions throughout the world, the family contains approximately 30 species amongst 4 genera...
, Lyophyllaceae,
MarasmiaceaeThe Marasmiaceae are a family of basidiomycete fungi which have white spores. They mostly have a tough stem and the capability of shrivelling up during a dry period and later recovering. The widely consumed edible fungus Lentinula edodes, the Shiitake mushroom, is a member of this family...
, Mycenaceae, Omphalotaceae, Physalacriaceae, and
PleurotaceaePleurotaceae are a family of small to medium sized mushrooms which have white spores. The family contains 6 genera and 94 species. Members of Pleurotaceae can be mistaken for members of Omphalotaceae...
.
The name "Tricholomataceae" is nevertheless seen as having validity in describing
Tricholoma and its close relatives, and whatever other genera can at some future point be described as part of a monophyletic family including
Tricholoma. To that end, the
International Botanical CongressInternational Botanical Congress is a large-scale meeting of botanists in all scientific fields, from all over the world. Authorized by the International Association of Botanical and Mycological Societies , congresses are held every six years with the venue circulating around the world. The XVIII...
has voted on two occasions (1988 and 2006) to conserve the name "Tricholomataceae" against competing names. (Redhead 2003, McNeill,
et al. 2006) This decision does not invalidate the use of segregate families from the Tricholomataceae, but simply validates the continued use of Tricholomataceae. (Young, 2002)
The extinct genus
ArchaeomarasmiusArchaeomarasmius is an extinct genus of gilled fungus in the Agaricales family Tricholomataceae, containing the single species Archaeomarasmius leggetti. It is known from two fruit bodies recovered from amber, one consisting of a complete cap with a broken stem, the other consisting of a fragment...
, described from
TuronianThe Turonian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the second age in the Late Cretaceous epoch, or a stage in the Upper Cretaceous series. It spans the time between 93.5 ± 0.8 Ma and 89.3 ± 1 Ma...
age
New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
amber, is one of four known genera of Agaricales in the fossil record.