Lentinellus

Classification and naming

The name Lentinellus is the diminutive of Lentinus, which is the generic name for another group of wood-decay fungi with rough lamellar edges. The type species and the best-known is L. cochleatus, which was classified under Lentinus by Persoon in 1825. Later it was realized that the species now in Lentinellus are very different in other characteristics from the other Lentinus species, and in modern taxonomy the groups are put into different orders (Lentinus is in Polyporales whereas Lentinellus is in Russulales).

Closely allied genera are Auriscalpium and Dentipratulum, with Artomyces slightly more distantly related. These groups are non-agaricoid but, strangely enough, Lentinellus is more closely related to them than to other gilled mushrooms.