TUBER ALCARACENSE Ant. Rodr. & Morte

Persoonia 44: 447 (2020)

 

Etymology:

Referring to Alcaraz mountain range, where the type specimen was collected.

Macroscopic characters:

Ascomata: hypogeous, 1–4 cm in size, subglobose, covered with brown-black pyramidal warts, 4–6-sided, 2–3(–4) mm across, 1–4 mm high, often depressed at the apex.

Gleba: firm, solid, white when immature, becoming dark brown at maturity, marbled with numerous, thin, white, meandering veins that do not change colour when exposed to the air.

Odour: strong, pleasant

Habitat:

Tuber alcaracense grows in Mediterranean Quercus ilex subsp. ballota forest, in limestone mountains of the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula (Alcaraz mountain range, 1000–1400 m alt.), from December to February.

Notes:

Tuber alcaracense is a black truffle of the aestivum clade characterised by its brown-black warty peridium, brown gleba marbled with thin white veins and reticulate-alveolate spores. It resembles Tuber mesentericum, but in addition to genetic differences it differs from T. mesentericum by having a pleasant odour and lacking a basal cavity.

 

 

Microscopic characters:

Asci: inamyloid, 60–90 × 50–75 μm, walls thickened, 1–2 μm, ellipsoid to subglobose, with a short stalk, 10–35 × 5–7 μm, (1–)3–4(–5)-spored.

Spores: 26–47 × 22–37 μm, Q = 1.1–1.4, excluding ornamentation, yellowish, ellipsoid to subglobose, ornamented with a coarse irregular reticulum, 3–5 μm high, sometimes bending at the top. Meshes variable, usually 3–5 across width of spore and often with incomplete secondary crests inside.

Peridium: 150–250 μm thick, pseudoparenchymatous, composed of subglobose, angular cells, 10–20 μm diam, pale yellow and thin-walled in the innermost layers, dark red-brown and with thicker walls in the outermost layers.

 

 

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Antonio Rodríguez trufamania@gmail.com antonio@trufamania.com