Daedaleopsis is a genus of fungi in the family Polyporaceae. The name Daedaleopsis is a reference to Daedalus, the labyrinth-maker of myth. Similarly, the maze-like pattern of pores is taxonomically described as being daedaloid. DNA was recovered and sequenced from fragments of a nearly 7000-year-old fruit body of D. tricolor found in an early Neolithic village in Rome.[2]
The genus was circumscribed by German mycologist Joseph Schröter in 1888.[1]
Daedaleopsis fungi have basidiocarps that are annual, with a cap or effused-reflexed (crust-like with the edges forming cap-like structures). Their colour is pale brown to deep red, zonate, with a mostly smooth cap surface, lamellate to tubular hymenophore, and a pale brown context. Microscopic features include a trimitic hyphal system with clamped generative hyphae, and the presence of dendrohyphidia. Daedaleopsis has hyaline, thin-walled, and slightly curved cylindrical spores that are negative in Melzer's reagent and Cotton Blue.[3]
Daedaleopsis fungi cause white rot, and are widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere.[3]
A 2008 estimate placed six species in the genus.[4] As of October 2016, Index Fungorum accepts 10 species of Daedaleopsis:
Daedaleopsis is a genus of fungi in the family Polyporaceae. The name Daedaleopsis is a reference to Daedalus, the labyrinth-maker of myth. Similarly, the maze-like pattern of pores is taxonomically described as being daedaloid. DNA was recovered and sequenced from fragments of a nearly 7000-year-old fruit body of D. tricolor found in an early Neolithic village in Rome.
