Asterophora is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of fungi that grow as parasites

Parasitism

Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. Traditionally parasite referred to organisms with lifestages that needed more than one host . These are now called macroparasites...

 on mushroom

Mushroom

A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi that...

s. The genus contains three species, which have a widespread distribution, especially in 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.Asterophora species are characterized by the massive production of chlamydospore

Chlamydospore

A Chlamydospore is the thick-walled big resting spore of several kinds of fungi. It is the life-stage which survives in unfavourable conditions, such as dry or hot seasons....

s in their fruit bodies

Sporocarp (fungi)

In fungi, the sporocarp is a multicellular structure on which spore-producing structures, such as basidia or asci, are borne...

 and by the production of carminophilous lysosomes in their basidia. A frequently used but synonymous

Synonym (taxonomy)

In scientific nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that is or was used for a taxon of organisms that also goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linnaeus was the first to give a scientific name to the Norway spruce, which he called Pinus abies...

 genus name is Nyctalis. The chlamydospores have been classified in the genus Ugola

Ugola

Ugola is a genus of fungi in the Lyophyllaceae family. The genus was first described scientifically by the French naturalist Michel Adanson in his 1763 Familles des Plantes. The three fungi in the genus are anamorphs of species of Asterophora, a genus of fungi that are parasitic on other mushrooms....

, which is an anamorphic name.