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Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy and their use to humans, including as a source for tinder, traditional medicine, food, and entheogens, as well as their dangers, such as toxicity or infection.
A truffle is the fruiting body of a subterranean ascomycete fungus, predominantly one of the many species of the genus Tuber. In addition to Tuber, many other genera of fungi are classified as truffles including Geopora, Peziza, Choiromyces, Leucangium, and over a hundred others. These genera belong to the class Pezizomycetes and the Pezizales order. Several truffle-like basidiomycetes are excluded from Pezizales, including Rhizopogon and Glomus. Truffles are ectomycorrhizal fungi, so are usually found in close association with tree roots. Spore dispersal is accomplished through fungivores, animals that eat fungi. These fungi have significant ecological roles in nutrient cycling and drought tolerance.
The Boletales are an order of Agaricomycetes containing over 1300 species with a diverse array of fruiting body types. The boletes are the best known members of this group, and until recently, the Boletales were thought to only contain boletes. The Boletales are now known to contain distinct groups of agarics, gasteromycetes, and other fruiting-body types.
Lepiota is a genus of gilled mushrooms in the family Agaricaceae. All Lepiota species are ground-dwelling saprotrophs with a preference for rich, calcareous soils. Basidiocarps are agaricoid with whitish spores, typically with scaly caps and a ring on the stipe. Around 400 species of Lepiota are currently recognized worldwide. Many species are poisonous, some lethally so.
The sporocarp of fungi is a multicellular structure on which spore-producing structures, such as basidia or asci, are borne. The fruitbody is part of the sexual phase of a fungal life cycle, while the rest of the life cycle is characterized by vegetative mycelial growth and asexual spore production.
The Suillaceae are a family of fungi in the order Boletales, containing the boletus-like Suillus, the small truffle-like Truncocolumella, as well as the monotypic genus Psiloboletinus. As of 2008, there are 54 species in the family. Gastrosuillus, once considered a distinct genus, has been shown with molecular analysis to be a recent evolutionary derivative of Suillus. Fuscoboletinus, described by Pomerleau and Smith in 1962, has also been subsumed into Suillus.
The Morchellaceae are a family of ascomycete fungi in the order Pezizales. According to a standard reference work, the family has contained at least 49 species distributed among four genera. However, in 2012, five genera that produce ascoma that are sequestrate and hypogeous were added. The best-known members are the highly regarded and commercially picked true morels of the genus Morchella, the thimble morels of the genus Verpa, and a genus of cup-shaped fungi Disciotis. The remaining four genera produce the sequestrate fruit bodies.
Royoungia is a fungal genus in the family Boletaceae. This is a monotypic genus, represented by the single species Royoungia boletoides, found in Australia.
Kalaharituber is a fungal genus in the family Pezizaceae. It is a monotypic genus, whose single truffle-like species, Kalaharituber pfeilii, is found in the Kalahari Desert, which spans the larger part of Botswana, the east of Namibia and the Northern Cape Province of South Africa.
Fevansia is a fungal genus in the family Albatrellaceae. A monotypic genus, it contains the single rare truffle-like species Fevansia aurantiaca, found in old-growth forests of Oregon. The name Fevansia honors Frank Evans of the North American Truffling Society, who collected the holotype specimen. Aurantiaca is Latin for "pale orange", referring to the color of the peridium.
The gasteroid fungi are a group of fungi in the Basidiomycota. Species were formerly placed in the obsolete class Gasteromycetes Fr., or the equally obsolete order Gasteromycetales Rea, because they produce spores inside their basidiocarps rather than on an outer surface. However, the class is polyphyletic, as such species—which include puffballs, earthstars, stinkhorns, and false truffles—are not closely related to each other. Because they are often studied as a group, it has been convenient to retain the informal (non-taxonomic) name of "gasteroid fungi".
Tuber is a genus in the Tuberaceae family of fungi, with estimated molecular dating to the end of the Jurassic period. It includes several species of truffles that are highly valued as delicacies.
Elaphomyces is a genus of hypogeous fungi in the family Elaphomycetaceae. The widespread genus contains 25 truffle-like species. Elaphomyces is one of the most important ectomycorrhizal fungal genera in temperate and subarctic forest ecosystems. E. asperulus, E. granulatus, and E. muricatus were found to accumulate arsenic ; the composition of organoarsenicals is very unusual, with methylarsonic acid and trimethylarsine oxide as major As compounds.
Andebbia is a fungal genus in the family Mesophelliaceae. The genus is monotypic, containing the single truffle-like species Andebbia pachythrix, found in Australia.
Gummiglobus is a genus of truffle-like fungi in the Mesophelliaceae family. The genus contains Australian two species described as new to science in 1996. The species, G. agglutinosporus and G. joyceae, "have columellae with wedge-shaped to digitate or strand-like projections that extend to the endocutis of the peridium and are embedded in a remarkable gummy tissue".
Malajczukia is a genus of truffle-like fungi in the Mesophelliaceae family. The genus contains eight species found in Australia and New Zealand.
Kalapuya brunnea is a species of truffle in the monotypic fungal genus Kalapuya. The truffle occurs only in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, in western Oregon and northern California. Known locally as the Oregon brown truffle, it was formerly thought to be an undescribed species of Leucangium until molecular analysis demonstrated that it was distinct from that genus. The truffle is reddish brown with a rough and warty outer skin, while the interior spore-producing gleba is initially whitish before developing greyish-brown mottling as it matures. Mature truffles have an odor resembling garlicky cheese, similar to mature Camembert. The species has been harvested for culinary purposes in Oregon.
Fischerula is a genus of two truffle-like fungi in the family Morchellaceae. First described from central Italy by Oreste Mattirolo in 1928, the genus name honors Swiss mycologist Eduard Fischer. The type species Fischerula macrospora is known only from Italy, while Fischerula subcaulis is found in coniferous and mixed forests of Oregon and Washington.
Kjeldsenia is a fungal genus in the family Claustulaceae. It contains the single truffle-like species Kjeldsenia aureispora, described in 1995 and found in Mendocino County, California. The genus name honors C.K. Kjeldsen, professor of botany at Sonoma State University, while the specific epithet aureispora refers to the color of the spores when they are viewed in transmitted light.
Dr Teresa Lebel is a taxonomist and ecologist who works on fungi, with a particular interest in subterranean truffle-like fungi and their mushroom, bolete, bracket or cup relatives.
References
- ↑ Trappe JM, Castellano MA, Malajczuk N (1992). "Australasian truffle-like fungi. II. Labyrinthomyces, Dingleya and Redellomyces gen. nov. (Ascomycotina)". Australian Systematic Botany. 5 (5): 597–611. doi:10.1071/SB9920597.
- ↑ Kirk PM, Cannon PF, Minter DW, Stalpers JA (2008). Dictionary of the Fungi (10th ed.). Wallingford, UK: CABI. p. 593. ISBN 978-0-85199-826-8.
