Reference articles on history, science, culture and more
Encyclopedia

Coprinopsis

Genus of fungi

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

Coprinopsis is a genus of mushrooms in the family Psathyrellaceae. Coprinopsis was split out of the genus Coprinus based on molecular data. The species Coprinopsis cinerea is a model organism for mushroom-forming basidiomycota, and its genome has recently been sequenced completely.

01Taxonomy

The genus was described in 1881 by the Finnish mycologist Petter Adolf Karsten with the type species Coprinopsis friesii and C. phaeospora placed within it, both having formerly been classified as Coprinus species. Karsten stopped using the Coprinopsis genus name by 1889 and in 1887 it was considered a subgenus of Coprinus by Narcisse Théophile Patouillard.

The genus name Coprinopsis was revived in 2001 when phylogenetic analysis was used to classify and rearrange species within the Coprinus genus. Coprinopsis was considered to be an advantageous name to use for the genus due to using the same root word as Coprinus. Despite the name however many of these species are not associated with dung and the type species itself was described as growing from dry grass on the edge of woodland.

Coprinopsis pulchricaerulea - A species from Australia that was first described in 2022.
Coprinopsis pulchricaerulea - A species from Australia that was first described in 2022.

02Etymology

Coprinopsis derives from the Greek kóprinos meaning dung and the Greek suffix ópsis. This refers to the similarity to Coprinus species.

03Selected species

For complete list see List of Coprinopsis species

Watch videos about CoprinopsisExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Coprinopsis, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.