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, rounded sterile base with a mycelial tuft, cream color at first, becoming brown ochre, smooth.

Peridium: 150 –250 µm thick, poorly delimited, pseudoparenchymatous, composed of angular to prismatic, hyalines and thin-walled cells in the innermost layers, subglobose, yellowish and with thicker walls in the outermost layers.

Gleba: solid, fleshy, succulent, whitish with greyish pockets at first, maturing to big pink salmon pockets of fertile tissue separated by whitish, thin veins of sterile tissue, sometimes with reddish brown spots

Odour: faint, no distinctive

Taste: mild.

Distibution, 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 differs in the big pink salmon pockets of fertile tissue, in autumn growing-season in acid soils associated with Cistaceae plants and Pinus spp, in reticulated spores, 16–18 µm in size including ornament.

 

(Click on the picture to see more images)

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.

 

---

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