Laccaria Berk. & Broome, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist., Ser. 5 12: 370 (1883)

Index Fungorum number:  IF 17886; MycoBank number: MB 17886

Type species: Laccaria laccata (Scop.) Cooke 1884

Notes – Laccaria currently comprises about 85 species (He et al. 2019), but numerous new species have been described in recent years (Wilson et al. 2013, 2016; Popa et al. 2014; Luo et al. 2016; Ramos et al. 2017; Vincenot et al. 2017; Cho et al. 2018; Wang et al. 2019b), a clear indication that the exact number of species in this genus is still undetermined. Laccaria species form mutualistic symbioses with many shrubs and forest tree species and are widely distributed over geographical areas from the tropics to the boreal regions (Gardes et al. 1990; Mueller 1992; Vincenot et al. 2011; Popa et al. 2014). Laccaria is easily recognized by having distinctive characters: basidiocarps are orange, purple, brown or flesh-coloured; pileus dry to subhygrophanous, lamellae rather thick and rather distant, from adnate to slightly decurrent; generally, with echinulate basidiospores; spore print white or pale violet (Singer 1986; Mueller 1992; Osmundson et al. 2005).

Species