Loreleia

{{Short description|Genus of fungi}}

{{Automatic_taxobox

| image = Loreleia postii 68641.jpg

| image_caption = Loreleia postii

| taxon = Loreleia

| authority =

| type_species = Loreleia postii

| type_species_authority = (Fr.) Redhead, Moncalvo, Vilgalys & Lutzoni (2002)

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision = L. marchantiae

L. postii

L. roseopallida

}}

Loreleia is a genus of brightly colored agarics in the Hymenochaetales that have an omphalinoid morphology.{{cite journal | author=Redhead, S.A.|year=2002a | title=Phylogeny of agarics: partial systematics solutions for bryophilous omphalinoid agarics outside of the Agaricales (euagarics)| journal=Mycotaxon | volume=82 | pages=151–168|display-authors=etal}}{{cite journal | author=Redhead, S.A.|year=2002b | title=Phylogeny of agarics: partial systematics solutions for core omphalinoid genera in the Agaricales (euagarics)| journal=Mycotaxon | volume=83 | pages=19–57|display-authors=etal}}{{cite journal |author1=Dentinger, B.T.M. |author2=McLaughlin, D.J. |name-list-style=amp |year=2006| title=Reconstructing the Clavariaceae using nuclear large subunit rDNA sequences and a new genus segregated from Clavaria| journal=Mycologia | volume=98 | issue=5 | pages=746–762| doi=10.3852/mycologia.98.5.746 | pmid=17256578}} They inhabit mosses and or liverworts on soil in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.{{cite book |author = Læssøe T, Petersen JH|title= Fungi of Temperate Europe Vol 1|publisher= Princeton University Press |year=2019 |isbn= 9780691180373 }} Phylogenetically related agarics are in the genera Contumyces, Gyroflexus, Rickenella, Cantharellopsis and Blasiphalia, as well as the stipitate-stereoid genera Muscinupta and Cotylidia{{cite journal | author=Larsson, K.-H.|year=2006 |orig-date=2007 | title=Hymenochaetales: a molecular phylogeny for the hymenochaetoid clade| journal=Mycologia | volume=98 | issue=6 | pages=926–936 | doi=10.3852/mycologia.98.6.926 | pmid=17486969|display-authors=etal}} and the clavaroid genus, Alloclavaria. However, the large number of DNA base-pair changes causes a long-branch to form in phylogenetic analyses depicted as cladograms.

In the field, to the eye, Loreleia is most similar to Rickenella because of the orangish colors and omphalinoid shape, but microscopically it differs by the absence of cystidia that in Rickenella make the latter minutely fuzzy as seen with a hand lens.{{cite journal | author=Norvell, L.L.|year=1994 | title=Omphalina sensu lato in North America. 1-2: 1: Omphalina wynniae and the genus Chrysomphalina. 2: Omphalina sensu Bigelow| journal=Mycotaxon | volume=50 | pages=379–407|display-authors=etal}} Loreleia penetrates the rhizoids of liverworts and may form a type of symbiosis with them,{{cite journal |author1=Bresinsky, A. |author2=Schötz, A. |name-list-style=amp |year=2006| title=Behaviour in cultures and habitat requirements of species within the genera Loreleia and Rickenella (Agaricales)| journal= Acta Mycologica| volume=41|issue=2 | pages=189–208| doi=10.5586/am.2006.022|doi-access=free|url=https://epub.uni-regensburg.de/32960/1/2845-6130-1-PB.pdf}} but in axenic culture tests, L. marchantiae killed Marchantia polymorpha when directly inoculated{{cite journal | author=Kost, G.|year=1988| title=Interactions between Basidiomycetes and Bryophyta|journal=Endocytobiosis Cell Res| volume=5| pages=287–308}} in contrast to the absence of necrosis in nature in situ. In nature Loreleia often occur in wet areas such as seepages with their hosts, Marchantia.

Older literature often treats the species, like L. postii and L. marchantiae, in the genera Omphalina or Gerronema.