Cordyceps
Genus of fungi / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Cordyceps /ˈkɔːrdɪsɛps/ is a genus of ascomycete fungi (sac fungi) that includes about 600 worldwide species. Diverse variants of cordyceps have had more than 1,500 years of use in Chinese medicine.[2] Most Cordyceps species are endoparasitoids, parasitic mainly on insects and other arthropods (they are thus entomopathogenic fungi); a few are parasitic on other fungi.[3]
Cordyceps | |
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Cordyceps militaris | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Fungi |
Division: | Ascomycota |
Class: | Sordariomycetes |
Order: | Hypocreales |
Family: | Cordycipitaceae |
Genus: | Cordyceps Fr. (1818) |
Type species | |
Cordyceps militaris (L.) Fr. (1818) | |
Species[1] | |
List of species
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The generic name Cordyceps is derived from the ancient Greek κορδύλη kordýlē, meaning "club", and the Latin -ceps, meaning "-headed".[4] The genus has a worldwide distribution, with most of the approximately 600 known species[5] being from Asia (notably Nepal, China, Japan, Bhutan, Korea, Vietnam, and Thailand).