The Subdivision Hymenomycotina (Hymenomycetes) is one of three taxa of the fungal Division Basidiomycota (fungi bearing spores on basidia). The Hymenomycetes contains some 20,000 species, and about 98% of these are Homobasidiomycetes: most of the fungi known as mushrooms and including the bracket fungi and puffballs. Species in the Hymenomycotina that are not Homobasidiomycetes include the jelly fungi, certain "yeasts", ear fungi, and others; these are gathered together as the class Heterobasidiomycetes.

Hymenium

The hymenium is the tissue layer in the basidiocarp where the cells develop into basidia and produce spores. In some species all of the cells of the hymenium develop into basidia; in others some cells develop into special sterile cells called cystidia. The subhymenial tissue lies beneath the hymenium, and beneath that is a layer called the trama. In the gill or lamella of a mushroom, the hyphae of the trama are oriented parallel with the lamella, those of the subhymenium at right angles to the trama hyphae.

References and External link

• Smith, G. M. 1955. Cryptogamic Botany, Vol. I, Algae and Fungi, 2nd Ed. McGraw Hill Book Co., New York. 546 pp.
• Hymenomycetes (http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Hymenomycetes&contgroup=Basidiomycota) at the Tree of Life Web Project