The Helminthosphaeriaceae are a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

fungi A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...

in the class

Sordariomycetes Sordariomycetes is a class of fungi in the subdivision Pezizomycotina (Ascomycota). It is the second-largest class of Ascomycota, with a worldwide distribution that mostly accommodates terrestrial based taxa, although several can also be found in ...

. Species in this family are

saprobic Saprotrophic nutrition or lysotrophic nutrition is a process of chemoheterotrophic extracellular digestion involved in the processing of decayed (dead or waste) organic matter. It occurs in saprotrophs, and is most often associated with fungi ...

, often growing on rotten wood or on the

fruit bodies The sporocarp (also known as fruiting body, fruit body or fruitbody) of fungi is a multicellular structure on which spore-producing structures, such as basidia or asci, are borne. The fruitbody is part of the sexual phase of a fungal life cyc ...

of old mushrooms. They are distributed in

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ran ...

areas.

Genera

As accepted by Wijayawardene et al. 2020 (with amount of species per genus); * '' Echinosphaeria'' (14) * '' Helminthosphaeria'' (ca. 20) * '' Hilberina'' (ca. 20) * '' Ruzenia'' (1)

References

Ascomycota families Chaetosphaeriales {{Sordariales-stub