Genus Merulius Fr.

[A separate genus from Phlebia]

Most authors combine Merulius under Phlebia but Binder et al. (2013) and Justo et al. (2017) provide evidence to keep the genera separate. The smallest clade having both Merulius tremellosus and Phlebia radiata also contains Aurantiopileus (three species), Aurantiporus (six to nine species) and the ophan Ceriporiopsis pseudoplacenta. Either we recognize several genera are we lump them under Phlebia.

Merulius tremellosus is a common species. Justo et al. (2017) and Kuuskeri et al. (2015) show species related to Merulius tremellosus; these are listed below. Nakasone & Burdsall (1995) describe P. hydnoidea and P. nantahaliensis (I could not find images for them).

Merulius hydnoideus (Phlebia hydnoidea, Odontia lateritia, eastern and southeastern USA)
Merulius tremellosus (widespread)
Phlebia leptospermi (New Zealand; bright yellow when fresh)
Phlebia nantahaliensis (North Carolina)
Phlebia serialis (Canada, Northern Europe)

Taxon Details and Links

Nomenclature

Genus Merulius Fr., Systema Mycologicum 1: 326 (1821)

Type

Merulius tremellosus Schrad. 1794.

Taxonomy

Merulius tremellosus is the type for Merulius as it was the first species given by Fries. The concept of Merulius by Fries (1821) is conserved over the earlier Merulius Haller ex Boehm. (1760), which had as type Agaricus cantharellus L. (≡ Cantharellus cibarius).

Description links

Phlebia tremellosa by Gary Emberger

Phlebia tremellosa by Michael Kuo

Related links

Binder, M., A. Justo, R. Riley, A. Salamov, F. Lopez-Giraldez, E. Sjökvist, A. Copeland, B. Foster, H. Sun, E. Larsson, K-H. Larsson, J. Townsend, I. V. Grigoriev, and D. S. Hibbett. 2013. Phylogenetic and phylogenomic overview of the Polyporales. Mycologia 105(6): 1350-1373. DOI: 10.3852/13-003

Floudas D., D.S. Hibbett. 2015. Revisiting the taxonomy of Phanerochaete (Polyporales, Basidiomycota) using a four gene dataset and extensive ITS sampling. Fungal Biology 119(8): 679-719. DOI: 10.1016/j.funbio.2015.04.003

Justo, A., O. Miettinen, D. Floudas, B. Ortiz-Santana, E. Sjökvist, D. Lindner, K. K. Nakasone, T. Niemelä, K.-H. Larsson, L. Ryvarden, D.S. Hibbett. 2017. A revised family-level classification of the Polyporales (Basidiomycota), Fungal Biology 121(9): 798-824. DOI: 10.1016/j.funbio.2017.05.010 [PDF available at Justo Publications]

Kuuskeri, J., M. R. Mäkelä, J. Isotalo, I. Oksanen, and T. Lundell. 2015. Lignocellulose-converting enzyme activity profiles correlate with molecular systematics and phylogeny grouping in the incoherent genus Phlebia (Polyporales, Basidiomycota). BMC Microbiology 15: 217 (18 pp.). DOI: 10.1186/s12866-015-0538-x

Nakasone, K. K., H.H. Burdsall Jr. 1995. Phlebia species from Eastern and Southeastern United States. Mycotaxon. 54: 335-359. [Mycotaxon available here: MykoWeb - Mycological Journals]

Taxon links

18053 Merulius: MycoBank; Index Fungorum

Compare Index Fungorum and Mycobank.