TERFEZIA ALSHEIKHII Kovács, M.P. Martín & Calonge
Mycologia 103(4): 848 (2011)
Macroscopic characters:
Ascomata: hypogeous to partially emergent at maturity, 1–2 cm in size, subglobose, with a rounded sterile base bearing a mycelial tuft, cream-coloured at first, becoming brownish-ochre, smooth.
Peridium: 150–250 µm thick, poorly delimited, pseudoparenchymatous, composed of angular to prismatic, hyaline and thin-walled cells in the innermost layers, subglobose, yellowish with thicker walls in the outermost layers.
Gleba: solid, fleshy, succulent, whitish with greyish pockets at first, maturing to large pink-salmon pockets of fertile tissue separated by whitish, thin veins of sterile tissue, sometimes with reddish-brown spots.
Odour: faint, not distinctive.
Taste: mild.
Distribution, Habitat and Season:
Widely distributed in the western half of the Iberian Peninsula, in sandy, acid soils, associated with Cistaceae plants and Pinus spp., from October to December.
Comments:
Terfezia alsheikhii is distinguished by its large pink-salmon pockets of fertile tissue, its autumn fruiting season in acid soils associated with Cistaceae plants and Pinus spp., and its reticulate spores, 16–18 µm in size including ornament.
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Microscopic characters:
Asci: nonamyloid, subglobose, ellipsoid to pyriform, sessile or short-stipitate, 60–100 x 40–70 µm, with 6–8 irregularly disposed spores, randomly arranged in the gleba.
Ascospores: globose, (15–)16–18(–20) µm diam (median = 17 µm) including ornament, hyaline, smooth and uniguttulate at first, by maturity yellow and ornamented with rounded, sometimes truncated warts, up to 2 µm tall and 2 µm broad at the base, forming a well-developed, small-meshed reticulum, polygonal meshes variable in form and size, 0.5–1 µm thick, 1 µm tall.
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