Mortierellales
order of fungi
Mortierellales is a monotypic fungal order, within the phylum of Zygomycota and the monotypic, division of Mortierellomycota. It contains only 1 known family, Mortierellaceae, and 6 genera and around 129 species.
History
Previously considered a family of Mucorales, it was suggested as its own order in 1998. At the time it only contained 2 genera, one of which remains. What is known is that species in this order can be parasitic or saprotrophic in nature. Cultured specimens show that they produce a fine mycelium, with branched sporangia, and produce a garlic-like odor. They are widespread, showing up in soil samples from many different locations. The most studied genera in this order is Mortierella, which contains species that cause crown rot in strawberries. There are currently 6 families and 13 described genera, with more than 100 species.
Mortierella polycephala was the first species described in 1863 by Coemans, and named after M. Du Mortier, the president of Société de Botanique de Belgique.
The public source identifies “Mortierellales” as order of fungi. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Mortierellales, order and fungi.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1392215. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1998 and 1863.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mortierellales” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.