View source for Auriculariaceae

{{Short description|Family of fungi}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| image = Hirneola auricula-judae (xndr).jpg
| image_caption = ''[[Auricularia auricula-judae]]''
| taxon = Auriculariaceae
| authority = [[Elias Magnus Fries|Fr.]] ex [[Gustav Lindau|Lindau]] <small>(1897)</small>
| subdivision_ranks = Genera
| subdivision = ''[[Adustochaete]]''<br/>
''[[Amphistereum]]''<br/>
''[[Aporpium]]''<br/>
''[[Auricularia]]''<br/>
''[[Eichleriella]]''<br/>
''[[Elmerina]]''<br/>
''[[Exidia]]''<br/>
''[[Exidiopsis]]''<br/>
''[[Fibulosebacea]]''<br/>
''[[Heterochaete]]''<br/>
''[[Heterocorticium]]''<br/>
''[[Heteroradulum]]''<br/>
''[[Hirneolina]]''<br/>
''[[Proterochaete]]''<br/>
''[[Protodaedalea]]''<br/>
''[[Sclerotrema]]''<br/>
''[[Tremellochaete]]''<br/>
| synonyms = Aporpiaceae <small>Bondartsev & Bondartseva (1960)</small><br/>
Exidiaceae <small>R.T.Moore (1978)</small><br/>
}}

The '''Auriculariaceae''' are a [[family (biology)|family]] of [[fungi]] in the [[order (biology)|order]] [[Auriculariales]]. Species within the family were formerly referred to the "[[heterobasidiomycetes]]" or "jelly fungi", since many have gelatinous [[basidiocarps]] (fruit bodies) that produce spores on septate [[basidia]]. Around 100 species are known worldwide. All are believed to be [[saprotrophic]], most growing on dead wood. Fruit bodies of several ''[[Auricularia]]'' species are cultivated for food on a commercial scale, especially in China.

==Taxonomy==

===History===
The family was established in 1897 by German [[mycologist]] [[Gustav Lindau]] to accommodate species of fungi having "gymnocarpous" basidiocarps (with the hymenium exposed) and "auricularioid" [[basidia]] (more or less cylindrical basidia with lateral septa). It included not only the genus ''[[Auricularia]]'', but also ''[[Platygloea]]'', ''[[Jola (fungi)|Jola]]'', ''[[Saccoblastia]]'', and ''Stypinella'' (= ''[[Helicobasidium]]''). In 1922, British mycologist [[Carleton Rea]] recognized the family as containing the genera ''Auricularia'', ''[[Eocronartium]]'', ''Helicobasidium'', ''Platygloea'', and ''[[Stilbum (fungus)|Stilbum]]''.<ref name="Rea1922"/> Both Lindau and Rea placed the family within the Auriculariales, but some subsequent authors placed it within the [[Tremellales]].<ref name="Martin1945"/><ref name="Lowy 1971"/>

A radical revision was undertaken in 1984, when American mycologist [[Robert Joseph Bandoni]] used [[transmission electron microscopy]] to investigate the [[ultrastructure]] of the septal pore apparatus in the Auriculariales. This revealed that species of fungi with "auricularioid" basidia were not necessarily closely related and that ''[[Auricularia]]'' had more in common with ''[[Exidia]]'' and its allies (with "tremelloid" basidia), than with other auricularioid fungi.  Bandoni therefore limited the Auriculariaceae to the genus ''Auricularia''.<ref name="Bandoni1984"/>

===Current status===
[[Molecular phylogenetics|Molecular]] research, based on [[cladistic]] analysis of [[DNA sequences]], has confirmed that the Auriculariaceae belong within the order Auriculariales, but has also indicated that the family is not distinguishable from the Exidiaceae.<ref name="Weiss&Oberw2001"/> A clade containing ''Auricularia'' and ''Exidia'' species (plus their allies) equates to the Auriculariaceae.<ref name="Weiss&Oberw2001"/><ref name="Hyde2020"/>

==Description==
The majority of species within the Auriculariaceae produce gelatinous [[basidiocarps]] (fruit bodies) on dead wood. In some these are conspicuous and may be ear-shaped, button-shaped, lobed, or effused. Their [[hymenophores]] (spore-bearing surfaces) may be smooth, warted, veined, spiny, or poroid. Some species, however, produce dry, leathery, or web-like fruit bodies resembling those of the [[corticioid fungi]].

==Distribution and habitat==
All species within the Auriculariaceae are thought to be [[saprotrophs]], most of them wood-rotters typically found on dead attached or fallen wood. As a group, their distribution is [[cosmopolitan distribution|cosmopolitan]]. The Auriculariaceae currently contain some 15 genera.<ref name="Hyde2020"/>

==Economic importance==
Several species within the order are edible and two, ''[[Auricularia heimuer]]'' and ''[[Auricularia cornea]]'', are cultivated on a commercial scale, particularly in China and southeast Asia. They are widely exported, in a dried or powdered state, as "black fungus", "cloud ears", or "wood ears".<ref name="cloudears"/>

==See also==
*[[List of Basidiomycota families]]

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em|refs=

<ref name="Rea1922">{{cite book |author=Rea C. |title=British Basidiomycetaceae. A handbook of the larger British fungi |publisher=Cambridge University Press  |year=1922 }}</ref>

<ref name="Martin1945">{{cite journal |doi=10.2307/3754690 |author=Martin GW. |year=1945 |title=The classification of the Tremellales |journal=Mycologia |volume=37 |issue=5 |pages=527–542 |jstor=3754690}}</ref>

<ref name="Lowy 1971">{{cite book |author=Lowy B. |title=Flora Neotropica 6: Tremellales |publisher=Hafner |location=New York |year=1971 |isbn=0-89327-220-5 }}</ref>

<ref name="Bandoni1984">{{cite journal |author=Bandoni RJ. |year=1984 |title=The Tremellales and Auriculariales: an alternative classification |journal=Transactions of the Mycological Society of Japan |volume=25 |pages=489–530}}</ref>

<ref name="Weiss&Oberw2001">{{cite journal | vauthors=Weiss M, Oberwinkler F | year=2001 | title=Phylogenetic relationships in Auriculariales and related groups – hypotheses derived from nuclear ribosomal DNA sequences | journal=Mycological Research | volume=105 | issue=4 | pages=403–415 | doi=10.1017/S095375620100363X}}</ref>

<ref name="Hyde2020">{{cite journal |vauthors=Hyde KD et al. |year=2020|title=Fungal diversity notes 1151–1276: taxonomic and phylogenetic contributions on genera and species of fungal taxa |journal=Fungal Diversity |volume=100 |pages=5–277 |doi=10.1007/s13225-020-00439-5|doi-access=free |hdl=2437/291202 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

<ref name="cloudears">Cloud ears & wood ears http://chinesefood.about.com/library/blchineseing3.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050919204730/http://chinesefood.about.com/library/blchineseing3.htm |date=2005-09-19 }}</ref> 
}}

==External links==
* [http://www.botanical-dermatology-database.info/BotDermFolder/FUNGI.html#AURICULARIACEAE Auriculariaceae] in [http://www.botanical-dermatology-database.info/index.html BoDD – Botanical Dermatology Database]

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[[Category:Auriculariales]]
[[Category:Basidiomycota families]]
[[Category:Taxa named by Gustav Lindau]]
[[Category:Taxa described in 1897]]