Discinaceae Phylospecies List

Introduction

Discinaceae is a family of fungi that includes lorchels, cup fungi, and truffles. Lorchels, also known as false morels, are defined as the stipitate Discinaceae fungi, some of which are toxic due to the production of gyromitrin (e.g., Gyromitra spp.) and others choice edibles (e.g., Maublancomyces gigas, Neogyromitra caroliniana). Significant progress in Discincaeae systematics has been made in recent years. Dirks et al. (2025) used whole-genome analyses to determine evolutionary relationships in the family and revised the taxonomy to include two tribes (tribe Discineae and tribe Gyromitreae), each with five genera (Figure 1). With a focus on DNA barcoding original nomenclatural type specimens, further taxonomic studies have contributed to a refined understanding of particular genera or more narrow species complexes. However, there remain many taxonomic questions and likely undescribed species in the group. This post is not meant to resolve all these issues or summarize all the taxonomic work and various opinions of mycologists over the centuries. Rather, it is meant to capture, organize, and communicate in real-time the expanding number of species-level clades being uncovered with DNA barcoding (currently at 102 species-level clades).

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