TUBER RUFUM Pico var. NIGRUM Mattirolo

Nuovo Giornale Botanico Italiano 34(5): 1347, without illustration (1927)

Synonyms:

Tuber rufum Pico var. oungloun Bonnet (1883) in Roumeguère Funghi gallici exsiccati nº 2816

Tuber rufum Pico f. melanica Cetto (1993) in I funghi dal vero 7: 583, pl. 2952

Macroscopic characters:

Ascomata: hypogeous, subglobose or irregular in form, 1-3 cm in size, blackish brown, warted. Warts minute, pyramidal, flattened

Gleba: hard, solid, whitish at first, becoming pink ochre, dark-brown at maturity, marbled with two kinds of numerous, thin, branching veins: the one kind dark-coloured and contain no air (venae lymphaticae, veines aquiferes of Tulasne, venae internae of Vittadini), the other white and conveying air (air-veins, veines aeriferes, venae externae).

Odour: strong, tuber-like

Taste: faint, little persistent, nutty

Habitat

We find this truffle in Mediterranean holm oak forests, in shady places

Notes:

The most distinctive characteristics are blackish, warted peridium and large, ellipsoide spores

 

Microscopic characters:

Asci: subglobose to broadly clavate or pyriform, long or short-stalked, 50-80 x 40-60 µm, excluding stalk, 1-4 (-5)-spored (usually 3-4-spored)

Ascospores: 24-45 x 17-28 µm excluding ornament, size variable depending on number of spores in the ascus, Q range = 1,41-2,11, ellipsoid, yellow ochre, translucent, ornamented with conic spines, separate, 2-4 µm long.

Peridium: 400-500 µm thick, composed of agglutinated, interwoven hyphae (texture intricata), becoming pseudoparenchymatous towards the surface and forming subglobose, thick-walled cells , in a superficial layer 50 µm thick.

 

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