Order Aphyllophorales: ثالث عام

 400 genera, 1200 species. This is one of the larger and more poorly defined groups of hymenomycetes, and one of the most diverse. Its name can be translated as without gills , and it seems to be designed as a catch-all for hymenomycetes that don t fit into the order Agaricales. So the Aphyllophorales embraces 8 families with conspicuous but different basidiomata -- the club and coral fungi, the tooth fungi, the dry rot fungi, the paint fungi, and the bracket fungi. Most are saprobic on wood, a few are ectomycorrhizal.

Family Polyporaceae. 
The bracket or shelf fungi. The basidiomata usually arise on wood, and may persist for several years. The under sides of polypore fruit bodies are generally riddled with thousands of pores, the openings of vertical tubes, which are lined with a basidial hymenium, Since the pores may be a couple of centimetres deep, this is a very efficient way of increasing hymenial area.

(All fungal fruit bodies are built up of hyphae, but those of polypores can have as many as three different major kinds of interwoven hyphae, and are called monomitic, dimitic or trimitic, according to whether they have one, two or three major hyphal systems).