Frantisekia

Frantisekia Spirin & Zmitr. 2007, in Spirin & Zmitrovich, Czech Mycology. 59, 144 (2007)

Etymology: according to the first name of the Czech mycologist František Kotlaba on the occasion of his 80th birthday in 2007.

Diagnosis: Basidiocarps annual, pileate, effused-reflexed or resupinate, cream to pale ochraceous and fleshy in fresh condition, often darkening and fragile when dry. Hymenophore poroid, tubes strongly agglutinated in herbarium specimens; pores small, 6–10 per mm. Hyphal structure pseudodimitic; generative hyphae clamped, hyaline or yellowish, thin– to somewhat thick-walled, pseudoskeletal hyphae present in context and (or) tubes, thick-walled, with rare clamps and septa, even or inflated, often weakly cyanophilous. No cystidia; cystidioles sometimes present. Basidia narrowly clavate, four-spored, clamped. Basidiospores thin-walled, oblong ellipsoid to cylindrical, negative in both Melzer’s reagent and Cotton Blue. Causes white rot in dead hardwoods. The best diagnostic characters of Frantisekia are the pseudodimitic hyphal structure, narrowly clavate basidia, and small spores. Relatives of Frantisekia might be found among Ceriporiopsis species, with which it shares fleshy resupinate basidiocarps, agglutinated tubes, predominance of thin-walled generative hyphae and the type of rot. However, the genus Ceriporiopsis is evidently heterogeneous (Zmitrovich et al. 2006, Tomšovský 2007), and needs to be split into small homogeneous genera.