page_title: Bovista
section_title: Systematics
hierarchical_section_title: Bovista / Systematics
caption_attribution_description: This is a plate from James Sowerby's Coloured Figures of English Fungi or Mushrooms.
context_page_description: Bovista is a genus of fungi commonly known as the true puffballs. It was formerly classified within the now-obsolete order Lycoperdales, which, following a restructuring of fungal taxonomy brought about by molecular phylogeny, has been split; the species of Bovista are now placed in the family Agaricaceae of the order Agaricales. Bovista species have a collectively widespread distribution, and are found largely in temperate regions of the world. Various species have historically been used in homeopathic preparations.
context_section_description: The genus was originally described by mycologist Christiaan Hendrik Persoon in 1794. He described the genus as "Cortice exteriore libero evanefcente, pileo acauli demum glaberrimo, vertice irregulariter rupto" ("Exterior cortex vanishes, cap stemless becoming smooth, irregularly breaking the top"). Synonyms include Piesmycus (Rafinesque 1808), Piemycus (Rafinesque 1813), Sackea (Rostkovius 1844), Globaria (Quélet 1873), and Pseudolycoperdon (Velenovský 1947). Bovista plumbea is the type species.
  Kreisel, in his 1967 monograph, proposed two subgenera based on the type of capillitium. Subgenus Globaria has species of the Lycoperdon type, while subgenus Bovista is represented by the Bovista-type or intermediate capillitium. Further divisions into sections and series is based on the capillitium type, the absence or presence of pores in the capillitia, and the presence or absence of a subgleba (a sterile base). Phylogenetic analysis has shown that Bovista, as defined by Kreisel, is monophyletic. Also, Bovista may be split into two clades, Bovista and Globaris, that roughly correspond to the subgeneric divisions suggested by Kreisel.
caption: Illustration of Bovista plumbea from James Sowerby's 1797 work Coloured figures of English fungi or mushrooms
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