History The concept of the family was introduced by French
mycologist René Maire in 1902, but the name "Vuilleminiacaeae" was not published till 1907 when Johannes Paulus Lotsy adopted Maire's concepts for his work on fungal
systematics. As originally conceived, the family accommodated species within the
corticioid fungi having "chiastic"
basidia (basidia with nuclear spindles arranged transversely), thought to be a primitive character linking the Vuilleminiaceae with the
Tulasnellaceae and the
Tremellales. The family was not, however, widely adopted, most mycological texts preferring to place all corticioid fungi (including
Vuilleminia species) in the
Corticiaceae. The latter name was, however, not published till 1910, making the Vuilleminiaceae an earlier name for the group, as noted by Jülich in 1981. As a result, the Corticiaceae was
conserved against the Vuilleminiaceae under the
International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, but this suppression of the name only applies if the two families are considered identical.
Current status Molecular research, based on
cladistic analysis of
DNA sequences, has resurrected and redefined the Vuilleminiaceae for a small
clade of corticioid fungi distinct from the Corticiaceae. At present, the family only contains species of the genera
Australovuilleminia,
Cytidia, and
Vuilleminia. ==Habitat and distribution==