An agaric () is a type of fungus fruiting body characterized by the presence of a pileus (cap) that is clearly differentiated from the stipe (stalk), with lamellae (gills) on the underside of the pileus. It is a type of mushroom, the diverse group of agarics being lumped together as gilled mushrooms.
Etymology
Originally, agaric meant 'tree-fungus' (after Latin
agaricum); however, that changed with the Linnaean interpretation in 1753 when
Carl Linnaeus used the generic name
Agaricus for gilled mushrooms.
Taxonomy
Most species of agarics belong to the order
Agaricales in the subphylum
Agaricomycotina. The exceptions, where agarics have evolved independently, feature largely in the orders
Russulales,
Boletales,
Hymenochaetales, and several other groups of basidiomycetes. Old systems of classification placed all agarics in the Agaricales and some (mostly older) sources use "agarics" as the colloquial collective noun for the Agaricales. Contemporary sources now tend to use the term
euagarics to refer to all agaric members of the Agaricales. "Agaric" is also sometimes used as a common name for members of the genus
Agaricus, as well as for members of other genera; for example,
Amanita muscaria is known by its common name "fly agaric". The genus
Agaricus was first described by
Carl Linnaeus in 1753,
and back then it contained all agarics. In the 19th century, Elias Magnus Fries split the genus into several smaller genera.
More recently, DNA studies revealed that agarics are not necessarily closely related to each other, and that mushroom gills are an example of convergent evolution.
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