Orders of Gasteromycetes:

Gautieriales, Hymenogastrales, Lycoperdales, Melanogastrales, Nidulariales, Phallales, Podaxales Sclerodermatales, Tulostomatales,

SCLERODERMATALES: basidiome epigeous; hymenium absent at maturity; peridium 1-layered; gleba powdery, spores purple.

Note the powdery dark gleba and the thick peridium; availalble for study is Scleroderma polyrhizon, a typical species from sand dunes; on this species note the rhizomorphs.

Pisolithus tinctorius. Abundant in coniferous forests where it forms ectomycorrhizae with most conifers. The stalk of the basidiome is buried in the ground and the gleba portion is chambered into peridioles which are fused. The top of the peridium wears away from the apex downward and thus the spores are dispersed by wind.

Astraeus grandis. Abundant in coniferous forests where it forms ectomycorrhizae with most conifers. Has a three layered peridium and the basidiome is buried in the ground with only the powdery gleba exposed.

classification for Basidiomycotina

rusts and smuts, jelly fungi (tremellales), jelly fungi (dacrymycetales), agaricales, aphyllophorales, gasteromycetes

genus and species

introductory features for Basidiomycotina