''Pirex'' is a fungal
genus
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
in the family
Meruliaceae
The Meruliaceae are a family of fungi in the order Polyporales. According to a 2008 estimate, the family contains 47 genera and 420 species. , Index Fungorum accepts 645 species in the family.
Taxonomy
The family was formally circumscribed by E ...
. It is a
monotypic
In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...
genus, containing the single
crust fungus
The corticioid fungi are a group of fungi in the Basidiomycota typically having effused, smooth basidiocarps (fruit bodies) that are formed on the undersides of dead tree trunks or branches. They are sometimes colloquially called crust fungi or pa ...
''Pirex concentricus''. It is found in the
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...
region of North America, where it causes a
white rot
A wood-decay or xylophagous fungus is any species of fungus that digests moist wood, causing it to rot. Some species of wood-decay fungi attack dead wood, such as ''Serpula lacrymans'', and some, such as '' Armillaria'' (honey fungus), are par ...
in woody
hardwood
Hardwood is wood from Flowering plant, angiosperm trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostl ...
and
conifer
Conifers () are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a sin ...
debris generated by timber harvesting.
Taxonomy
The species ''Pirex concentricus'' was originally
described by
Mordecai Cubitt Cooke
Mordecai Cubitt Cooke (12 July 1825, in Horning, Norfolk – 12 November 1914, in Southsea, Hampshire) was an English botanist and mycologist who was, at various points, a London schoolteacher, a Kew mycologist, curator at the India Museum, jour ...
and
Job Bicknell Ellis
Job Bicknell Ellis (January 21, 1829 – December 30, 1905) was a pioneering North American mycologist known for his study of ascomycetes, especially the grouping of fungi called the Pyrenomycetes (known today as the Sordariomycetes). Born and ...
in 1885 as ''Radulum concentricum''. Ellis collected the
type
Type may refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc.
* Data type, collection of values used for computations.
* File type
* TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file.
* ...
specimens from
Oregon
Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...
.
A century after Cooke's publication,
Kurt Hjortstam and
Leif Ryvarden
Leif Randulff Ryvarden (born 9 August 1935) is a Norwegian mycologist.
Early life and education
Leif Ryvarden was born in Bergen as a son of Einar Norberg Johansen (1900–1959) and Hjørdis Randulff (1912–1975).
He finished his secondary ed ...
circumscribed the new genus ''Pirex'' to contain this fungus, as they believed it to have a unique combination of
traits
Trait may refer to:
* Phenotypic trait in biology, which involve genes and characteristics of organisms
* Genotypic trait, sometimes but not always presenting as a phenotypic trait
* Personality, traits that predict an individual's behavior.
** ...
that would not adequately fit into any other known genera. The name ''Pirex'' is an
anagram
An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into the phrase "nag a ram"; which ...
of the fungal genus ''
Irpex
''Irpex'' is a genus of corticioid fungi in the order Polyporales. Species produce fruit bodies that grow as a crust on the surface of dead hardwoods. The crust features an irpicioid spore-bearing surface (for which the genus is named), meaning ...
''.
In 1995, Hjortstam considered ''Pirex'' to be a
synonym
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...
of ''
Pseudolagarobasidium'', and proposed the
new combination
In Taxonomy (biology), biological taxonomy, a combinatio nova (abbreviated comb. nov. or n. comb.) refers to the formal renaming of an organism's scientific name when it is transferred to a different genus, reclassified within a different specie ...
''Pseudolagarobasidium concentricum''. Modern
systematics
Systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: phylogenetic trees, phylogenies). Phy ...
considers the two genera to be distinct;
''Pseudolagarobasidium'' is classified in the family
Phanerochaetaceae
The Phanerochaetaceae are a family of mostly crust fungi in the order Polyporales.
Taxonomy
Phanerochaetaceae was first conceived by Swedish mycologist John Eriksson in 1958 as the subfamily Phanerochaetoideae of the Corticiaceae. It was later ...
. Hjortstam added ''Hydnum subvinosum'' Berk. & Broome to ''Pirex'' in 1987,
but this fungus is considered now a species of ''
Radulodon''.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q7197964
Fungi of Canada
Fungi of the United States
Meruliaceae
Monotypic Polyporales genera
Taxa named by Leif Ryvarden
Taxa described in 1985