TERFEZIA ARENARIA (Moris) Trappe
Trans. Br. mycol. Soc. 57(1): 90 (1971)
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Basionym:
Tuber arenarium Moris, Elench. Stirp. Sard. 3: 22 (1829)
Synonyms:
Choiromyces leonis Tul. & C. Tul., Annls Sci. Nat., Bot., sér. 3 3: 350 (1845)
Rhizopogon leonis (Tul. & C. Tul.) Payer, Bot. Crypt.: 100 (1850)
Terfezia leonis (Tul. & C. Tul.) Tul. & C. Tul., Fungi hypog.: 173 (1851)
Macroscopic characters:
Ascomata: hypogeous to partially emergent at maturity, 3–10(–15) cm in size, subglobose, turbinate, obpyriform, sometimes coalescent, often with tapered, sterile base, initially whitish with pink shades and black spots, darkening with age, finally brown, initially smooth, unpolished, sometimes cracked, associated with rapid growth.
Peridium: 2–3 mm thick, whitish-pink salmon in cross section, prosenchymatous, composed of more or less inflated hyphae, thin-walled, 20–50 µm wide, sometimes arranged in parallel orientation, hyaline, yellowish in the outermost layers.
Gleba: solid, fleshy, succulent, whitish to pale pink at first, greyish, maturing to reddish-brown pockets of fertile tissue separated by sterile veins concolorous with the peridium in cross section, inconspicuous at maturity.
Odour: faint, not distinctive.
Taste: mild, pleasant, gastronomically prized.
Distribution, Habitat and Season:
Widely distributed in the western half of the Iberian Peninsula, in areas with a Mediterranean climate, very common in the grasslands of Extremadura, in acid, sandy, moist, well-drained soils, exclusively associated with Tuberaria guttata, March through May. Its fruiting period is highly dependent on rainfall and temperature, and the species may be absent in years when conditions are unfavourable.
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Microscopic characters:
Asci: nonamyloid, globose to subglobose, sessile, 80–120 x 70–100 µm, with 6–8 irregularly disposed spores, randomly arranged in fertile pockets.
Ascospores: globose, 25–30 µm diam. including ornament, hyaline, smooth and uniguttulate at first, then yellow and ornamented with separate, truncated or rounded warts, up to 7 µm tall and 5–7 µm broad at maturity.
Comments:
The most distinctive characters of Terfezia arenaria are: large size, brown colour with black spots, association with Tuberaria guttata in sandy, acid soils, and spores ornamented with prominent, truncated warts resembling a cogwheel.
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