Perenniporia


Perenniporia is a cosmopolitan genus of bracket-forming or crust-like polypores in the family Polyporaceae. They are dimitic or trimitic with smooth, thick-walled basidiospores and cause a white rot in affected wood.

Taxonomy

Perenniporia was proposed by American mycologist William Alphonso Murrill in 1943 to contain two species formerly placed in Poria, a genus formerly used to contain all crust-like poroid fungi. His description of the genus was: "Hymenophore become perennial, riding; context white or yellow; tubes pinkish, white or yellow, stratose in older specimens; spores hyaline." Murrill's concept was to move the species with annual fruit bodies into Perenniporia, retaining Poria for those that produced perennial fruit bodies. The genus name combines the Latin word perennis with the genus name Poria Edalat.
Murrill's designated type species, P. unita, had a broad and poorly defined species concept that included other species, including Perenniporia medulla-panis. Additionally, P. unita was discovered to be a nomen dubium, which also threatened the validity of the genus Perenniporia. To remedy this nomenclatural instability, Cony Decock and Joost Stalpers proposed to conserve Perenniporiella with P. medulla-panis as the type.
Although Truncospora has traditionally been considered a synonym of Perenniporia, molecular phylogenetic analysis shows that it is genetically unique and worthy of recognition as a distinct genus. Genera that have been segregated from Perenniporia include Perenniporiopsis and Perenniporiella.

Species

A 2008 estimate placed 60 species in the genus., Index Fungorum accepts 100 species of Perenniporia: