Sclerodermataceae

Fruit-bodies are mostly epigenous (above ground), rarely hypogeous (underground), more or less spherical in shape, without a stem or with an irregular root-like stem. The peridium (outer wall) is mostly simple, rarely 2-layered, firm, rarely thin, membranous, breaking open irregularly or in lobes or decaying, revealing the gleba. The gleba typically has sharply defined basidia-bearing sectors, which are partitioned from one another by sterile veins, and in which the basidia are regularly scattered through the tissue. The gleba, which is brown or white in young specimens, turns dark purple to brownish purple in age, and crumbles to a powder of spores and disintegrating tissues at maturity. The basidia are roughly clavate (club-shaped). Spores are brown, roughly spherical in shape, thick-walled, with spines or warts, or with a network-like appearance. Spores are spread by wind, by predators, or are washed into the soil by rainwater.Zeller SM. (1949). Keys to the orders, families, and genera of the gasteromycetes. Mycologia 41(1): 36-58.{{cite book |author1=Miller, Hope Ridings |author2=Miller, Orson K. |title=Gasteromycetes: morphological and developmental features, with keys to the orders, families, and genera |publisher=Mad River Press |location=Eureka, Calif |year=1988 |isbn=0-916422-74-7 }}

Taxa are found growing on the ground or associated with rotten wood, and are mostly ectomycorrhizal with woody plants.

• Calostoma - "prettymouths"
• Chlorogaster Laessoe T, Jalink LM. (2004). Chlorogaster dipterocarpi - A new peristomate gasteroid taxon of the Sclerodermataceae. Persoonia 18(3): 421-428.
• Favillea
• Horakiella
• Pisolithus - including P. tinctorius (dyemaker's puffball)
• Scleroderma - "earthballs"

The genera Pisolithus, Scleroderma and Calostoma{{cite journal |author1=Wilson AW |author2=Hobbie EA |author3=Hibbett DS. |title=The ectomycorrhizal status of Calostoma cinnabarinum determined using isotopic, molecular, and morphological methods |journal=Canadian Journal of Botany |volume=85 |pages=385–393 |doi= 10.1139/B07-026 |year=2007 |issue=4|s2cid=53365835 |url=http://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/37fb/eef8347a6b871f361e5ef9fe5b4d2399655d.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190222030611/http://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/37fb/eef8347a6b871f361e5ef9fe5b4d2399655d.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2019-02-22 }}{{cite journal |author1=Wilson AW |author2=Binder M |author3=Hibbett DS. |title=Diversity and evolution of ectomycorrhizal host associations in the Sclerodermatineae (Boletales, Basidiomycota) |journal=New Phytologist |volume=194 |pages=1079–1095 |doi= 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2012.04109.x |pmid=22471405 |year=2012 |issue=4|doi-access=free }} are known to be ectomycorrhizal.

Phylogenetic analysis places the Sclerodermataceae in the bolete clade.Binder M, Hibbett DS, Larsson K-H, Larsson E, Langer E, Langer G. (2005). The phylogenetic distribution of resupinate forms across the major clades of mushroom-forming fungi (Homobasidiomycetes). Systematics and Biodiversity 3(2): 113–157{{cite journal |author1=Larsson KH |author2=Larsson E |author3=Kõljalg U |title=High phylogenetic diversity among corticioid homobasidiomycetes |journal=Mycological Research |volume=108 |issue=Pt 9 |pages=983–1002 |date=September 2004 |pmid=15506012 |doi= 10.1017/S0953756204000851}} Older analysis suggests that the Sclerodermataceae (including the genera Scleroderma and Veligaster), the Pisolithaceae (Pisolithus), the Astraeaceae (Astraeus), Calostomataceae (Calostoma), and the new families Gyroporaceae (Gyroporus) and Boletinellaceae (Boletinellus and Phlebopus), should form a new suborder, the Sclerodermatineae.Binder M, Bresinsky A. (2002). Derivation of a polymorphic lineage of Gasteromycetes from boletoid ancestors. Mycologia 94(1): 85-98.

Image: Scleroderma citrinum LC0159.jpg|Scleroderma citrinum

Image: Scleroderma geaster.jpg|Scleroderma geaster

Image: Calostoma_cinnabarina.jpg|Calostoma cinnabarina

Image: Pisolithus arrhizus.jpg|Pisolithus arhizus

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{{Commons category|Sclerodermataceae}}

{{Wikispecies|Sclerodermataceae}}

• [http://www.indexfungorum.org/Names/familyrecord.asp?strRecordID=81268 Index Fungorum]
• [http://www.svims.ca/council/Sclero.htm Trial field key to the species of SCLERODERMATACEAE in the Pacific Northwest]

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Category:Boletales

Sclerodermataceae