Terfezia morenoi
Fungi Hypogaei: 176, Tab. XV, fig. v
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Macroscopic characters:
Ascomata: hypogeous to partially emergent at maturity, 2–5 cm in size, subglobose, with a short sterile base, cream-coloured at first, becoming brown, with black spots on sun-exposed parts or where handled, smooth.
Peridium: 300–500 µm thick, whitish in cross section, pseudoparenchymatous, composed of subglobose cells, 20–50 µm diam, thin-walled, hyaline, yellowish and angular to oblong in the outermost layers.
Gleba: solid, fleshy, succulent, whitish with small pale grey pockets at first, maturing to greyish-green pockets of fertile tissue separated by whitish sterile veins, sometimes with salmon-pink spots. Often with small holes indicating mycophagous activity.
Odour: faint, distinctive.
Taste: mild.
Distribution, Habitat and Season:
Terfezia morenoi grows in calcareous, clayey, alkaline soils, associated with Pinus spp. and Quercus ilex, with no presence of Cistaceae, from mid-March to mid-April.
Comments:
Molecular analysis has shown several distinct clades within spiny-spored Terfezia species with pseudoparenchymatous peridium. Terfezia morenoi differs from other spiny-spored Terfezia species by its habitat in alkaline soils associated with trees rather than Cistaceae, and by having the smallest spores of the group, averaging 16–18 µm including ornament, with the shortest spines, 1–2 µm long.
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Microscopic characters:
Asci: nonamyloid, ellipsoid to ovate, citriform, sessile or short-stipitate, 60–90 x 50–60 µm, walls 1–2 µm thick, with 6–8 irregularly disposed spores, randomly arranged in fertile pockets.
Ascospores: globose, (15–)16–18(–19) µm diam (median = 17 µm) including ornament, 13–15(–16) µm (median = 14 µm) without ornament, hyaline, smooth and uniguttulate at first, by maturity yellow ochre and ornamented with conical spines, pointed, straight, separate, 1–2(–2.5) µm long, 1 µm wide at the base.
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Antonio Rodríguez trufamania@gmail.com antonio@trufamania.com |