Tuber puberulum Berkeley & Broome
Annals and Magazine of Natural History 18: 81, without illustration (1846)
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Synonyms:
Tuber moretii Maire (1924), Bulletin de la Société Mycologique de France 40: 315, pl. 21 fig. 8-9 (1924)
Macroscopic characters:
Ascomata: hypogeous, subglobose or irregular in shape, gibbous, 0.5–2 (–3) cm across, smooth, wholly pubescent at first, partly pubescent at maturity; initially whitish, becoming yellowish-brown or reddish brown with brown spots.
Gleba: firm, solid; whitish at first, then light brown or pinkish brown, marbled with numerous white, branching veins.
Odour: faint, not distinctive.
Taste: faint, not distinctive.
Habitat
A very common species throughout Europe, associated with conifers and broad-leaved trees. Ripens from spring to autumn.
Notes:
Tuber puberulum is a collective species encompassing varieties, forms and closely related species. Tuber borchii, Tuber dryophilum, Tuber maculatum and Tuber puberulum form a group of white truffles with reticulate-alveolate spores that are difficult to tell apart. They share similar macroscopic and microscopic characters and sometimes exhibit a range of intermediate forms between several of these species, making it not always possible to distinguish one from another.
Tuber murinum R. Hesse (1894) is very similar to Tuber puberulum and is accepted as a valid species by most authors.
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Microscopic characters:
Asci: subglobose to ovate, sessile or short-stalked, 80–100 × 65–80 µm excluding stalk, 1–4-spored (usually 3-spored).
Ascospores: 28–50 × 28–42 µm excluding ornament, size variable depending on the number of spores per ascus, Q range = 1.00–1.31, subglobose to very broadly ellipsoid, pale yellow, reddish brown at maturity, translucent, ornamented with a regular reticulum with meshes 5–7 µm high, 3–7 µm long, 5–8 across the width of the spore.
Peridium: 100–200 µm thick, pseudoparenchymatous, composed of small, subglobose to subangular cells 10–20 µm in diameter, densely covered with hairs in young specimens. Hairs 50–110 µm long, 4–6 µm across at the base, pale yellow or hyaline, septate, tapered, usually acute at the apex.
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Antonio Rodríguez trufamania@gmail.com antonio@trufamania.com |