Basidiomycota: Diverse Complex of Saprophytic, Parasitic, and Symbiotic Fungi

Approximately 30% of all known fungi are classified into the phylum Basidiomycota (basidiomycetes; Alexopoulos et al., 1996). A large percentage of this total belongs to the group known as the fleshy basidiomycetous fungi that produce soft to flexible fruiting bodies that decay or decompose rapidly. Commonly called mushrooms (Figure 15.1), fleshy basidiomycetes include gilled and pored fungi, the puffballs, bird’s nest fungi, jelly fungi, and the stinkhorns (Christensen, 1950). Species that form structures associated with wood decay are generally shelf-to conk-like (lacking a stalk; Figures 15.2 through 15.4) or resupinate (appressed to the plant tissue; Figure 15.5).