Terfezia albida Ant. Rodr., Muñoz-Mohedano & Bordallo
Mycotaxon 124: 201 (2013)
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Macroscopic characters:
Ascomata: hypogeous to partially emergent at maturity, 2–4 cm across, 3–4 cm high, subglobose to turbinate, pulvinate, often with a tapered, sterile base, white at first, becoming light beige, often with black spots on sun-exposed parts or where handled, greenish with age on injured areas, smooth.
Peridium: 200–500 µm thick, poorly delimited, white in cross section, pseudoparenchymatous, composed of subglobose cells of variable size, hyaline and thin-walled in the innermost layers, yellowish with thicker walls in the outermost layers.
Gleba: solid, fleshy, succulent, white at first, maturing to greyish-green pockets of fertile tissue separated by whitish sterile veins, sometimes with pink spots.
Odour: faint, spermatic, more pronounced in young specimens.
Taste: mild.
Distribution, Habitat and Season:
South-east of the Iberian Peninsula, limited to arid and semiarid areas, in calcareous, alkaline soils, associated with Helianthemum spp., from late April to mid-May, sharing habitat with Terfezia claveryi, although Terfezia albida usually prefers more saline and clayey soils and appears later.
Comments:
Molecular analysis has shown several distinct clades within spiny-spored Terfezia species with pseudoparenchymatous peridium. Terfezia albida differs from other spiny-spored Terfezia species in the larger average size of ascomata, white colour of peridium and spermatic odour. Terfezia albida is the only spiny-spored Terfezia species associated with Helianthemum spp. in alkaline soils. Terfezia eliocrocae and Terfezia claveryi share habitat with Terfezia albida but have reticulate spores.
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Microscopic characters:
Asci: nonamyloid, subglobose to ovate, sessile or short-stipitate, 70–85 (–90) x 55–70 µm, walls 1 µm thick, with 6–8 irregularly disposed spores, randomly arranged in the gleba.
Ascospores: globose, (18–)19–22(–23) µm diam (median = 20 µm) including ornament, 14–17(–18) µm (median = 16 µm) without ornament, hyaline, smooth and uniguttulate at first, by maturity yellow ochre and ornamented with conical, blunt, straight spines, sometimes cylindrical and curved, sometimes truncated, separate, 2–3 µm long, 1–2 µm wide at the base, sometimes connected to form a pseudo-reticulum.
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Antonio Rodríguez trufamania@gmail.com antonio@trufamania.com |