Steccherinaceae

The Steccherinaceae are a family of about 200 species of fungi in the order Polyporales. It includes crust-like, toothed, and poroid species that cause a white rot in dead wood.

==Taxonomy== The family was circumscribed by Estonian mycologist Erast Parmasto in 1968. Parmasto's original concept included species that are today classified in the Agaricales, Hymenochaetales, Polyporales, and Russulales. A large-scale molecular study published in 2012 by Otto Miettinen and colleagues redefined the limits of the Steccherinaceae to include most species of the poroid and hydnoid genera Antrodiella, Junghuhnia, and Steccherinum, as well as members of 12 other hydnoid and poroid genera. These genera were traditionally classified in the families Phanerochaetaceae, Polyporaceae, and Meruliaceae. They commented: "we see the need for at least 30 monophyletic, morphologically distinguishable genera. These include no fewer than 15 new genera for both polypores and hydnoid fungi, and revival of several unused genus names." In a subsequent 2016 publication coauthored with Leif Ryvarden, Miettinen circumscribed several new genera—Antella, Austeria, Butyrea, Citripora, and Trulla. In a 2017 phylogenetic overview of the Polyporales, Alfredo Justo and colleagues have noted "The extreme morphological variation within the Steccherinaceae makes it very difficult to characterize the family by means other than phylogeny and a certain predominance of morphological characters."