Basidiomycota and Entorrhizomycota

Part 1/3 of Engler's Syllabus of Plant Families - Basidiomycota and Entorrhizomycota provides a thorough treatise of the world-wide morphological and molecular diversity of the fungal phyla Basidiomycota and Entorrhizomycota. The Basidiomycota (Pucciniomycotina, Ustilaginomycotina, Agaricomycotina) are an extremely diverse group of the fungi with c. 36000 species, with a fascinating range of morphological and biological variation, distributed from the Antarctic, arctic tundra to tropical rainforests, and of high economic value. Many species of Agaricomycotina play a role in human food, most important and of greatest economic interest are the parasitic Pucciniomycotina and Ustilagomycotina. The Entorrhizomycota are plant root associated fungi and seem to represent a lineage of living fossils which links Glomeromycota, Ascomycota and Basidiomycota in a probable common origin. The present volume is, as the formerly published volumes of the Syllabus, an updated synthesis of classical anatomical-morphological characters with modern molecular data, incorporating numerous new discoveries made during the last ten years, providing a comprehensive modern survey covering all families and genera of the Basidiomycota and Entorrhizomycota including detailed family descriptions. Following the tradition of Engler, and incorporating the latest results from molecular phylogenetics and phylogenomics, the completely restructured and revised 13th edition provides an up-to-date evolutionary and systematic overview of the fungal and plant groups. It is a mandatory reference for students, experts and researchers from all fields of biological sciences, particularly botany, phycology and mycology. While the Fungi are not part of the Plant Kingdom, they are formally included within the classic Engler's title "Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien / Syllabus of Plant Families", which comprised families of blue-green algae, algae, fungi, lichens, ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants.