The Lycoperdales are a now outdated

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

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 ...

. The order included some well-known types such as the giant puffball, the earthstars, and other tuberous fungi. They were defined as having epigeous basidiomes, a

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 ...

present, one to three layers in the peridium (outer wall), powdery

gleba Gleba (, from Latin ''glaeba, glēba'', "lump") is the fleshy spore-bearing inner mass of certain fungi such as the puffball or stinkhorn. The gleba is a solid mass of spores, generated within an enclosed area within the sporocarp. The conti ...

, and brown spores. The restructuring of fungal taxonomy brought about by

molecular phylogeny Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

has divided this order. Most of its members have been placed in family

Agaricaceae The Agaricaceae are a family of basidiomycete fungi and include the genus ''Agaricus'', as well as basidiomycetes previously classified in the families Tulostomataceae, Lepiotaceae, and Lycoperdaceae. Taxonomy The family Agaricaceae was publishe ...

of order

Agaricales The Agaricales are an order (biology), order of fungi in the division (mycology), division Basidiomycota. As originally conceived, the order contained all the agarics (gilled mushrooms), but subsequent research has shown that not all agarics are ...

, while the earthstars are now in

Geastrales Geastrales is an order (biology), order of puffballs, gasterocarpic Basidiomycota, basidiomycetes (fungi) that are related to Gomphales. The order contains the family (biology), families Geastraceae, which includes the "earthstars" formerly place ...

, and similar species now occupy the order Phallales. Lycoperdales were distinguished by their globose or subglobose fruiting body having a

that is powdery at maturity, and generally supported by sterile tissue. Example genera include

Lycoperdon ''Lycoperdon'' is a genus of puffball mushrooms. The genus has a widespread distribution and contains about 50 species. In general, it contains the smaller species such as the pear-shaped puffball and the gem-studded puffball. It was formerly cl ...

, Bovista, and Calvatia.

References

Agaricomycetes Obsolete fungus taxa {{Agaricomycetes-stub