Terms discussed: Leucosporae, Melanosporae, Ochrosporae, Rhodosporae
These names are the formal part of Fries' system of classifying gilled fungi according to spore color:
Leucosporae - - the white-spored mushrooms
Melanosporae - - the black-spored mushrooms
Ochrosporae - - the brown-spored mushrooms
Rhodosporae - - the pink-spored mushrooms
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I am reviving the terms Melanosporae and Ochrosporae for use in this database, since the brown and black-spored families that are now standard
(a) have been shown to be polyphyletic, and hence do not serve science, and
(b) are based on microscopic characteristics, and hence are useless for the collector in the field.
So I'm doing what everybody identifying a mushroom by sight has always done all along: just using spore color and leaving those exotic cap cuticle characteristics out of it.
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