Black asco on pallet

[fairplay]

I think Chris was being kind to me there, as he never picked me up on my saying " ... the old Order of Deuteromycetes ..."

I believe I should have said 'Family' as I try to remember it this way:
Family-seat (...cetes) and Order-ale, as in ordering a pint of ale (...ales) but I have yet to think of an easy way of remembering what '...aceae' stands for.

Neil.

P.S. Or was it Family-ace (aceae) as in the genius in the family ? I'm all confused again now as I had it all worked out about 20 years ago when I thought of a way to remember all this. Sigh !

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by fairplay

I think Chris was being kind to me there, as he never picked me up on my saying " ... the old Order of Deuteromycetes ..."

I believe I should have said 'Family' as I try to remember it this way:
Family-seat (...cetes) and Order-ale, as in ordering a pint of ale (...ales) but I have yet to think of an easy way of remembering what '...aceae' stands for.

Neil.

P.S. Or was it Family-ace (aceae) as in the genius in the family ? I'm all confused again now as I had it all worked out about 20 years ago when I thought of a way to remember all this. Sigh !

sigh indeed

sorry for the small size, but here is a quick grab from the Dictionary of the Fungi; it shows all (almost) the various taxonomic levels in current use - I have highlighted the ones which it is useful (I hesitate to say essential) to understand- forget Subkingdom (I was just being lazy . . . )


I reckon they have chosen a rust fungus as they often have levels below species; I think family is a very useful taxon because it helps break down otherwise large taxa - for example in the Agaricales - I would recommend having a look at this Agaricales - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - note how the different groups of "toadstools" are scattered around, often closely related to "gasteromycetes" (equally scattered); for example the pink-spored Entolomataceae are not at all close to the pink-spored Pluteaceae

notice also that there are some anomalous species which seem to sit outside the family structure - Dendrocollybia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia being a classic example

all this serves to underline that fungi which look similar - particularly at the macroscopic level - may be examples of convergent evolution; so Clavulina (in the order Gomphales) is not closely-related to Clavulinopsis (in the order Agaricales) - and while on this theme note the strange situation in which Agaricales - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia shows the Clavariaceae (right at the bottom) in the "Plicaturopsidoid clade" - but click on it and it will tell you it's in the Agaricales! a slip or an area of discussion? while the true position of the huge array of fungi is slowly becoming clearer, it's still very much a work in progress

cheers

Chris