TERFEZIA EXTREMADURENSIS Muñoz-Mohedano, Ant. Rodr. & Bordallo
Mycotaxon 124: 195 (2013)
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Macroscopic characters:
Ascomata: hypogeous to partially emergent at maturity, 2–5 cm in size, subglobose, sometimes furrowed and nodulose, often cracked, often with a small basal depression, rarely with a pseudostipe, cream-coloured at first, becoming brown, with black spots on sun-exposed parts or where handled, smooth.
Peridium: 300–600 µm thick, well-defined, concolorous with surface in cross section, pseudoparenchymatous, composed of subglobose cells, hyaline and thin-walled in the innermost layers, yellowish with thicker walls in the outermost layers.
Gleba: solid, fleshy, succulent, whitish at first, soon becoming salmon-pink, darkening with age, greyish-green at maturity, marbled with thin, white, meandering veins, sometimes arising from the base and inconspicuous in very mature specimens. Often with small holes indicating mycophagous activity.
Odour: faint, not distinctive.
Taste: mild.
Distribution, Habitat and Season:
Widely distributed in the western half of the Iberian Peninsula, common in the grasslands of Extremadura in sandy, acid soils, associated exclusively with Tuberaria guttata, from late winter to early spring. Terfezia extremadurensis is the earliest terfezia to appear, in March, followed by Terfezia fanfani and finally Terfezia arenaria.
Comments:
Molecular analysis has shown several distinct clades within spiny-spored Terfezia species with pseudoparenchymatous peridium. Terfezia extremadurensis differs from other spiny-spored Terfezia species in its Tuber-like glebal morphology, with meandering veins that do not completely surround the fertile tissue and do not form discrete pockets, unlike all other Terfezia species. Microscopically, Terfezia extremadurensis has the largest spores of the spiny-spored Terfezia species, with an average spore size of 22–26 µm including ornament, and the thickest spines, up to 3 µm wide at the base. Terfezia fanfani shares the same habitat, but Terfezia extremadurensis lacks reddish tones and has a different gleba. Microscopically, Terfezia fanfani has smaller spores, average spore size 19–22 µm, with thinner spines, 1 µm wide at the base.
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Microscopic characters:
Asci: nonamyloid, subglobose to ovate, sessile or short-stipitate, 60–80 x 50–65 µm, walls 1–2 µm thick, with 6–8 irregularly disposed spores, randomly arranged in the gleba.
Ascospores: globose, (21–)22–26(–27) µm diam (median = 24 µm) including ornament, (16–)17–19(–20) µm (median = 18 µm) without ornament, hyaline, smooth and uniguttulate at first, by maturity yellow and ornamented with conical, blunt, thick spines, sometimes truncated, sometimes finger-like, often joined at the base, 3–4(–5) µm long, 1–3 µm wide at the base.
 | Antonio Rodríguez trufamania@gmail.com antonio@trufamania.com |