TERFEZIA GRISEA Bordallo, V. Kaounas & Ant. Rodr.
Phytotaxa 230 (3): 241 (2015)
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Macroscopic characters:
Ascomata: hypogeous to partially emergent at maturity, solitary, 1–2.5 cm in size, tuberiform, subglobose, often with a conical sterile base, initially pale rusty, in places spotted whitish, later brown, rusty or ochraceous brownish, in places blackish-brown to almost black, smooth.
Peridium: 200–400 µm thick, not separable from gleba, poorly delimited, 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 with greyish pockets at first, maturing to blackish-grey pockets of fertile tissue separated by whitish sterile veins.
Odour: faint, not distinctive.
Taste: mild.
Distribution, Habitat and Season:
Terfezia grisea grows in alkaline, sandy soils, in coastal pine forest in Greece and in open grassland in Spain, associated with Helianthemum spp., from March to June in Spain and from March to April in Greece.
Notes:
Terfezia grisea is a spiny-spored Terfezia species characterised by its ochraceous brownish, almost black peridium, blackish-grey gleba and occurrence in alkaline sandy soils associated with Helianthemum spp. T. albida and T. morenoi also grow in alkaline soils, but in clay rather than sandy soils. T. albida, although also associated with Helianthemum spp., has larger ascomata, a white peridium, a greyish-green gleba and a spermatic odour. T. morenoi has larger ascomata and smaller spores than T. grisea.
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Microscopic characters:
Asci: nonamyloid, subglobose to ovate, sessile or short-stipitate, 60–80 x 50–60 µm, walls 1 µm thick, with 6–8 irregularly disposed spores, randomly arranged in the gleba.
Ascospores: globose, (18–)19–21(–22) µm diam (median = 21 µm) including ornament, (15–)16–17(–18) µm (median = 16 µm) without ornament, hyaline, smooth and uniguttulate at first, by maturity yellow ochre and ornamented with conical, sometimes truncated, separate, blunt spines, 2–3 µm long, 1–2 µm wide at the base.
 | Antonio Rodríguez trufamania@gmail.com antonio@trufamania.com |