comprises fungi bearing the spores on a basidium
includes Gasteromycetes (puffballs) and Tiliomycetes comprising the orders Ustilaginales (smuts) and Uredinales (rusts) and Hymenomycetes (mushrooms, toadstools, agarics and bracket fungi)
in some classification systems considered a division of kingdom Fungi - subdivision basidiomycota- basidiomycotina- subdivision basidiomycotina