Scleroderma sect. Sclerangium (Lév.) Guzmán,

(2) Scleroderma sect. Sclerangium (Lév.) Guzmán,

Ciencia ( México) 25: 199 (1967)

≡ Sclerangium Lév., Annales des Sciences Naturelles Botanique 9: 130 (1848)

Type species:— Scleroderma polyrhizum (J.F. Gmel.) Pers. , Synopsis Methodica Fungorum (Göttingen) 1: 156 (1801)

Description:— Basidiomata usually small to medium-sized, sessile to stipitate, subglobose to tuberiform. Peridium usually leathery, more than 1 mm in thickness, without a color change, becoming darker, or turning reddish, purplish to brownish after damaged, with thin to thick, flaky to granular squamules to nearly smooth. Gleba usually compact at first, becoming pulverulent. Basal rhizomorphs usually moderately abundant to abundant, whitish to yellowish.

Basidiospores usually globose, thick-walled, with echinulate to subreticulate ornamentation, brownish to purplish. Basidia usually clavate. Gleba trama usually composed of nearly colorless hyphae. Clamp connections usually present.

Notes:— This section is moderately supported by phylogeny. Species in this section SEEMS safer in edibility, but DEFINITIVE EVIDENCE is largely absent for many species. ( Figs. 1 View FIGURE 1 & 2 View FIGURE 2 ; see section Discussion for details).