The Clavariaceae 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 order of 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 family contains 7 genera and 120 species. Collectively, they are commonly known as coral fungi due to their resemblance to aquatic coral

Coral

Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...

, although other vernacular names including antler fungi, finger fungi, worm mold, and spaghetti mushroom are sometimes used for similar reasons.

Initially all classified in the 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...

 Clavaria

Clavaria

Clavaria is a genus of fungi in the family Clavariaceae. Species of Clavaria produce basidiocarps that are either cylindrical to club-shaped or branched and coral-like. They are often grouped with similar-looking species from other genera, when they are collectively known as the clavarioid fungi...

, they were later split out into many genera including Clavicorona

Clavicorona

Clavicorona is a genus of mushrooms in the family Auriscalpiaceae. The genus was first described by Doty in 1947.-External links:* at Index Fungorum...

, Clavulina

Clavulina

Clavulina is a genus of fungi in the family Clavulinaceae. Species are characterized by having extensively branched fruit bodies. The genus contains approximately 45 species with a worldwide distribution, primarily in tropical regions.-Species:...

, Clavulinopsis

Clavulinopsis

Clavulinopsis is a genus of fungi in the Clavariaceae family. The genus, first described scientifically by Casper van Overeem in 1923, has a widespread distribution and contains 33 species.-External links:* at Index Fungorum...

, Macrotyphula

Macrotyphula

Macrotyphula is a genus of fungi in the Agaricales order. The genus has a widespread distribution and contains six species....

, Ramaria

Ramaria

The genus Ramaria comprises approximately 200 species of coral fungi. Several, such as Ramaria flava, are edible and picked in Europe, though they are easily confused with several mildly poisonous species capable of causing nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea; these include R. formosa and R...

and Ramariopsis

Ramariopsis

Ramariopsis is a genus of fungi in the Clavariaceae family. The genus has a widespread distribution and contains 44 species.- Species :R. agglutinata –R. alutacea –R. antillarum –R. asperulospora –...

.

Some superficially similar species are not so closely related; the fairy club genus Clavariadelphus

Clavariadelphus

Clavariadelphus is a genus of fungi in the Clavariadelphaceae family. The genus has a widespread distribution in temperate areas, and contains 19 species....

, Ramaria

Ramaria

The genus Ramaria comprises approximately 200 species of coral fungi. Several, such as Ramaria flava, are edible and picked in Europe, though they are easily confused with several mildly poisonous species capable of causing nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea; these include R. formosa and R...

and Clavulina

Clavulina

Clavulina is a genus of fungi in the family Clavulinaceae. Species are characterized by having extensively branched fruit bodies. The genus contains approximately 45 species with a worldwide distribution, primarily in tropical regions.-Species:...

belong to the family Gomphaceae

Gomphaceae

The Gomphaceae are a diverse family of fungi belonging in what is classically known as the Phallales or cladistically as the gomphoid-phalloid clade. The family has 13 genera and 287 species....

, Lentaria

Lentaria

Lentaria is a genus of fungi in the Lentariaceae family. The genus has a widespread distribution and contains 17 species.-Species:*Lentaria afflata*Lentaria boletosporioides*Lentaria byssiseda*Lentaria caribbeana*Lentaria epichnoa...

belongs in the Thelephorales

Thelephorales

The Thelephorales are an order of fungi in the class Agaricomycetes. The order includes corticioid and hydnoid fungi, together with a few polypores and clavarioid species. All fungi within the Thelephorales are ectomycorrhizal...

 order, while the genus Calocera

Calocera

Calocera is a fungal genus in the Dacrymycetes order. According to the Dictionary of the Fungi , the widely distributed genus contains 15 species.-Species:*Calocera australis*Calocera bambusicola*Calocera clavata...

is an entirely different organism of the class Dacrymycetes

Dacrymycetes

The Dacrymycetes are a class consisting of only one family of jelly fungi, which has imperforate parenthesomes and basidia that are usually branched. There are 9 genera and 101 species in the Dacrymycetaceae family.-References:...

.

Coral fungi can be similar in appearance to jelly fungi

Jelly fungi

The class Heterobasidiomycetes or jelly fungi is a paraphyletic group of several fungal orders: Tremellales, Auriculariales, Dacrymycetales. These fungi are so named because their foliose to irregularly branched fruiting body is, or appears to be, the consistency of jelly. Actually, many are...

. They are often brightly colored, mostly oranges, yellows, or reds, and usually grow in older mature forests. Some coral fungi are saprotrophic on decaying wood, while others are commensal or even parasitic.