The Hericiaceae 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 order

Russulales The Russulales are an order of the Agaricomycetes, (which include the agaric genera '' Russula'' and ''Lactarius'' and their polyporoid and corticioid relatives). According to the ''Dictionary of the Fungi'' (10th edition, 2008), the order con ...

. The best known genus is ''

Hericium ''Hericium'' is a genus of edible mushrooms in the family Hericiaceae. Species in this genus are white and fleshy and grow on dead or dying wood; fruiting body, fruiting bodies resemble a mass of fragile icicle-like spines that are suspended fro ...

'', species of which are valued for their medicinal properties in Oriental medicine. Taxa are mainly known from north

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 ...

regions, and 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 ...

on rotting wood.

Phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

analysis suggests that ''Hericiaceae'' belongs to the russuloid

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

of homobasidiomycetes, and morphological and

molecular A molecule is a group of two or more atoms that are held together by attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions that satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemistry, ...

evidence links it with the families

Auriscalpiaceae The Auriscalpiaceae are a family of fungi in the order Russulales. Like much of the Russulales, it has been defined through molecular phylogeny, and includes physically dissimilar species, such as the tooth fungus The hydnoid fungi are a group ...

Bondarzewiaceae The Bondarzewiaceae are a family of fungi in the order Russulales. The type species for both its genus and the family as a whole, ''Bondarzewia montana'', closely resembles members of Polyporales (and was formerly placed there), but has ornament ...

and Echinodontiaceae. Originally proposed in 1961 by Taisiya Lvovna Nikolayeva as a subfamily of

Hydnaceae The Hydnaceae are a family of fungi in the order Cantharellales. Originally the family encompassed all species of fungi that produced basidiocarps (fruit bodies) having a hymenium (spore-bearing surface) consisting of slender, downward-hanging ta ...

, Hericiaceae was formally published as a family by

Marinus Anton Donk Marinus Anton Donk (14 August 1908 – 2 September 1972) was a Dutch mycology, mycologist. He specialized in the Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and nomenclature of mushrooms. Rolf Singer wrote in his obituary that he was "one of the most outstandin ...

in 1964.

Description

Species of this family commonly have fruitbodies with pegs, spines, or teeth hanging from the

hymenium The hymenium is the tissue layer on the hymenophore of a fungal fruiting body where the cells develop into basidia or asci, which produce spores. In some species all of the cells of the hymenium develop into basidia or asci, while in oth ...

References

Russulales Basidiomycota families {{Russulales-stub