Order Aphyllophorales:
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).