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The Helvellaceae is a family of ascomycete fungi, the best known members of which are the elfin saddles of the genus Helvella. Originally erected by Elias Magnus Fries in 1823 as Elvellacai, it contained many genera. Several of these, such as Gyromitra and Discina, have been found to be more distantly related in a molecular study of ribosomal DNA by mycologist Kerry O'Donell in 1997, leaving a much smaller core clade now redefined as Helvellaceae. Instead, this narrowly defined group is most closely related to the true truffles of the Tuberaceae.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ O'Donnell, Kerry; Elizabeth Cigelnik, Nancy S. Weber and James M. Trappe (1997). "Phylogenetic relationships among ascomycetous truffles and the true and false morels inferred from 18S and 28S ribosomal DNA sequence analysis". Mycologia 89 (1): 48-65. doi:10.2307/3761172.
