Taxonomic Study on the Genus Lyophyllum in Sustainable Environment Engineering

Lyophyllum P. Karst (1881) is characterized by siderophilous basidia and spore becoming blue in cotton blue solution, which was divided into three divided sections (Lyophyllum, Difformia, and Tephrophana) by Singer in 1986 based on color variations of gills bruised and habitat. To 2012, two hundred and thirty-nine taxa were recorded in Indexfungorum.org; nineteen taxa were reported in this genus in China. Most species of the genus Lyophyllum are very important delicious edible and medicinal fungi. For example, L. decastes and L. semitale have anti-cancer effect. In this paper, the authors dwell on some taxonomic questions of the genus Lyophyllum: (1) the characters of classification, including siderophilous granulation in the basidia and spores becoming blue in cotton blue solution, are not unique; (2) a few species that their specific taxonomic position is still unclear, furthermore, phenomenon of synonym and homonym is presented commonly; (3) the Lyophyllum is not monophyletic group. Finally, the authors put forward a natural taxonomic system need be continually studied and generated using a conjoint methods of morphological and molecular.