Strobilomycetaceae

The Boletaceae are a family of mushrooms, primarily characterized by developing their spores in small pores on the underside of the mushroom, instead of gills, as are found in agarics. Nearly as widely distributed as agarics, they include the Cep or King Bolete (Boletus edulis), highly sought by mushroom hunters. As a whole, the typical members of the family are commonly known as boletes. Boletes are a relatively safe group of mushrooms for human consumption, as none are known to be deadly to adults, and they are some of the most highly sought fungi for mushroom hunting. They are especially suitable for novice mushroom hunters, since there is little danger of confusing them with deadly mushrooms, like various Amanita agarics, which are the most poisonous mushrooms in the world. Some boletes are toxic, but those are not easily confused with the most popular edible ones. Boletes are easily distinguished from agarics, and easily recognized for colour, pores and thick stems and caps. Most species in Boletaceae produce large fleshy mushrooms with a central stipe. The spore print colours are commonly olivaceous (yellowish-green), yellowish, brownish, or vinaceous (red-wine coloured). In many species, flesh that is bruised or cut will turn blue, a result of the oxidation of pulvinic acid derivatives, like variegatic, xerocomic, and atrotomentinic acid. The mushrooms usually have tubular hymenophores, although some species (like those in the genus Phylloporus) are lamellate. Boletaceae were first described by the French botanist François Fulgis Chevallier in 1826 as a family distinct from Agaricaceae. Five genera were included in Chevallier's circumscription: Boletus, Cladoporus (now synonymous with Laetiporus), Physisporus (now Perenniporia), Polyporus, and Fistulina. Rolf Singer, in the 4th edition (1986) of his Agaricales in Modern Taxonomy, included 26 genera and 415 species in the Boletaceae. Molecular phylogenetic studies of the 2000s have revised the concept of the family; in a highly cited 2006 publication, Manfred Binder and David Hibbett included 38 genera. Even after recent changes in classification that have moved many members out of the Boletaceae, it remains a large family with many genera. According to the Dictionary of the Fungi (10th edition, 2008), 35 genera are recognized in Boletaceae, which collectively contain 787 species. In the comprehensive work of Wu et al.(2014), seven major clades at subfamily level and 59 generic lineages were uncovered, including four new subfamilies (Austroboletoideae, Chalciporoideae, Leccinoideae, and Zangioideae) and 22 new potential genera. Several new genera have since been described. It is important to note that that the characters previously used in morphology-based taxonomy of Boletaceae (e.g. basidiospore ornamentation, basidioma and 'stuffed' pore morphology) are inconsistent with molecular taxonomy: suggesting multiple origins within the family, so they 'should be de-emphasized combined with other characters ... for high-level classification of Boletaceae'. Many other genera formerly part of this family have been moved into other, smaller families as work with molecular phylogeny shows that they are more distantly related, even if physically similar. Representative of this adjustment is the move of the slimy-capped genus Suillus to Suillaceae. Boletes are found worldwide, on every continent except Antarctica. Well-known and well-described in the temperate latitudes in the northern hemisphere, newer research has shown significant diversity in tropical and southern hemisphere regions as well. E. J. H. Corner found evidence of at least 60 species on the island of Singapore alone. In 1972 he described 140 species from the Malay Peninsula and Borneo and estimated there were an equal number again to be found.