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The Russulales consists of agaricoid, gasteroid and hypogeous gasteroid taxa of basidiomycetes closely related to Russula and Lactarius. Because there have been no molecular phylogenetic studies of the Russulales, attempts at formulating a natural classification for these taxa have met with difficulty. In this study, nuclear large subunit rDNA (n-LSU) was used to infer phylogenetic relationships among members of the Russulales including agaricoid, tropical pleurotoid and annulate taxa, and gasteroid and hypogeous gasteroid genera. Analysis of the n-LSU region indicated that Russula sensu strictu (excluding gasteroid and hypogeous gasteroid taxa) can be considered polyphyletic with two well supported groups, one group arising separately from the main body of the tree and one group basal to Lactarius. Russula sensu lato can be considered paraphyletic with gasteroid and hypogeous gasteroid forms nested …