Human interactions with fungi the weather, and in the case of dry rot caused by "Serpula lacrymans", also of timbers in largely dry houses. Some wood-decay fungi such as the honey fungi, species of "Armillaria", are parasites of living trees, attacking their roots and eventually killing them, and continuing to decompose the wood when they are dead. Honey fungus is a serious horticultural pest, as it can spread from tree to tree by long strap-shaped rhizomorphs in the soil. Fungi are important crop pathogens, as they reproduce rapidly, affect a wide range of crops around the world, cause some 85% of plant diseases, and
Serpula (fungus) Serpula (fungus) Serpula is a genus of fungi in the family Serpulaceae. The term was originally defined by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon as a section of the genus "Merulius" in 1801. British botanist Samuel Frederick Gray raised it to genus status in his 1821 work "The Natural Arrangement of British Plants". The name is derived from the Latin verb "serpěre" "to creep". Synonyms include Johann Heinrich Friedrich Link's 1809 "Xylophagous", Christian Hendrik Persoon's 1825 "Xylomyzon", Narcisse Théophile Patouillard's 1874 "Gyrophora", and Patouillard's 1897 "Gyrophana". "Serpula" forms a clade with at least two other closely related genera, "Austropaxillus" and "Gymnopaxillus", the three