The Inocybaceae are a family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 of fungi in the Agaricales

Agaricales

The fungal order Agaricales, also known as gilled mushrooms , or euagarics, contains some of the most familiar types of mushrooms. The order has 33 extant families, 413 genera, and over 13000 described species, along with five extinct genera known only from the fossil record...

 order. According to a 2008 estimate, the family contains 13 genera

Genera

Genera is a commercial operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It is essentially a fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with LMI and Texas Instruments...

 and 821 species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

. Members of this family have a widespread distribution in tropical and temperate

Temperate

In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally relatively moderate, rather than extreme hot or cold...

 areas.

Taxonomy

The type genus of the Inocybaceae, Inocybe

Inocybe

Inocybe is a large, complex genus of mushrooms. Members of Inocybe are mycorrhizal, and some evidence shows that the high degree of speciation in the genus is due to adaptation to different trees and perhaps even local environments.-Description:...

, has traditionally been placed within the Cortinariaceae

Cortinariaceae

The Cortinariaceae are a large family of gilled mushrooms found worldwide, containing over 2100 species. The family takes its name from its largest genus, the varied species of the genus Cortinarius...

 family. Despite this, Jülich placed the genus in its own family, the Inocybaceae. Later, the Cortinariaceae were shown to be polyphyletic. Additionally, phylogenetic analyses of RPB1, RPB2 and nLSU-rDNA

RDNA

rDNA may stand for:*ribosomal DNA*recombinant DNARDNA is also an acronym for*Reformed Druids of North America...

 regions from a variety of Inocybe

Inocybe

Inocybe is a large, complex genus of mushrooms. Members of Inocybe are mycorrhizal, and some evidence shows that the high degree of speciation in the genus is due to adaptation to different trees and perhaps even local environments.-Description:...

and related taxa would support Jülich's recognition of Inocybe at the family level.