The Terfeziaceae, or desert truffles, is a family of truffles endemic to arid and semi-arid areas of the Mediterranean Region, North Africa, and the Middle East, where they live in ectomycorrhizal association with Helianthemum species and other ectomycorrhizal plants. This group consists of three genera: Terfezia, Tirmania, and Mattirolomyces. They are a few centimetres across and weigh from 30 to 300 grams (1–10 oz). Desert truffles are often used as a culinary ingredient.
Gyromitra is a genus of about 18 species of ascomycete fungi. They are a false morel - a frequently toxic mushroom that can be mistaken for edible mushrooms of the genus Morchella (morels).
The Pezizales are an order of the subphylum Pezizomycotina within the phylum Ascomycota. The order contains 16 families, 199 genera, and 1683 species. It contains a number of species of economic importance, such as morels, the black and white truffles, and the desert truffles. The Pezizales can be saprobic, mycorrhizal, or parasitic on plants. Species grow on soil, wood, leaves and dung. Soil-inhabiting species often fruit in habitats with a high pH and low content of organic matter, including disturbed ground. Most species occur in temperate regions or at high elevation. Several members of the Sarcoscyphaceae and Sarcosomataceae are common in tropical regions.
The Hymenogastraceae is a family of fungi in the order Agaricales with both agaric and false-truffle shaped fruitbodies. Formerly, prior to molecular analyses, the family was restricted to the false-truffle genera. The mushroom genus Psilocybe in the Hymenogastraceae is now restricted to the hallucinogenic species while nonhallucinogenic former species are largely in the genus Deconica classified in the Strophariaceae.
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.
The Helvellaceae are a family of ascomycete fungi, the best-known members of which are the elfin saddles of the genus Helvella. Originally erected by Elias Magnus Fries in 1823 as Elvellacei, it contained many genera. Several of these, such as Gyromitra and Discina, have been found to be more distantly related in a molecular study of ribosomal DNA by mycologist Kerry O'Donnell in 1997, leaving a much smaller core clade now redefined as Helvellaceae. Instead, this narrowly defined group is most closely related to the true truffles of the Tuberaceae. Although the Dictionary of the Fungi considered the Helvellaceae to contain six genera and 63 species, genetic analysis has shown that Leucangium, previously classified in this family, is more closely related to the Morchellaceae.
Nidularia is a genus of nine species of fungi in the family Agaricaceae. Their fruit bodies resemble tiny egg-filled bird nests. The name comes from the Latin nidus meaning nest. The related genus Mycocalia was segregated from Nidularia in 1961 based on differences in the microscopic structure of the peridium.
Itajahya is a fungal genus in the family Phallaceae. The genus, widespread in tropical and subtropical areas, contains three species. Characters in this genus include a white calyptra, and lamellate plates covered with gleba. The gleba has a white mottled surface, and the cap appears wig-like when removed of the gleba. The thick, stout stalk has many chambered walls. The species Itajahya rosea, formerly classified in the genus Phallus, was transferred to Itajahya in 2012 when molecular phylogenetic analysis revealed that it was not closely related to other Phallus species.
Sarcosphaera is a fungal genus within the Pezizaceae family. It is a monotypic genus, containing the single species Sarcosphaera coronaria, commonly known as the pink crown, the violet crown-cup, or the violet star cup. It is a whitish or grayish cup fungus, distinguished by the manner in which the cup splits into lobes from the top downward. It is commonly found in the mountains in coniferous woods under humus on the forest floor, and often appears after the snow melts in late spring and early summer. The fungus is widespread, and has been collected in Europe, Israel and the Asian part of Turkey, North Africa, and North America. In Europe, it is considered a threatened species in 14 countries. Although several taxa have been described as Sarcosphaera species since the introduction of the genus in 1869, most lack modern descriptions, have been transferred to the related genus Peziza, or are considered synonymous with S. coronaria.
Infundibulicybe is a genus of fungi that is robustly placed incertae sedis as sister group to the Tricholomatoid clade. It has previously been part of the family of Tricholomataceae, but recent molecular phylogeny has shown it to take an isolated position within the Agaricales.
Pseudoomphalina is a genus of fungi in the placed in the family Tricholomataceae for convenience. The genus contains six species that are widespread in northern temperate areas. Pseudoomphalina was circumscribed by Rolf Singer in 1956. Pseudoomphalina was found to be paraphyletic to Neohygrophorus in a molecular phylogenetics study and since Pseudoomphalina is an older name, Neohygrophyorus was synonymized with it. The type species of Neohygrophorus was Neohygrophorus angelesianus, now Pseudoomphalina angelesiana. In earlier classifications based on anatomy prior to DNA sequence-based classifications, its unusual combination of features led taxonomists to independently create two subgenera in two genera: Hygrophorus subg. Pseudohygrophorus and Clitocybe subg. Mutabiles; the latter based on Neohygrophorus angelesianus but described under a new species name which is now placed in synonymy, Clitocybe mutabilis. All species of Pseudoomphalina are united by the presence of clamp-connections in their hyphae, an interwoven gill trama and amyloid spores. Pseudoomphalina angelesiana possesses grey-violaceous pigments that turn red in alkali solutions and lacks filiform, hyphal sterile elements in its hymenium and stipitipellis. These were features used to distinguish it from Pseudoomphalina as a genus, but Pseudoomphalina umbrinopurpurascens possesses these same pigments and the filiform elements of Pseudoomphalina. Molecular phylogenetics studies have also found some former species of Pseudoomphalina to belong in other genera. Pseudoomphalina pachyphylla was moved to its own genus, Pseudolaccaria, and Pseudoomphalina clusiliformis was synonymized with it. Pseudoomphalina flavoaurantia and Pseudoomphalina lignicola were found to belong in Clitocybula. Phylogenetically, Pseudoomphalina is in a tricholomatoid clade but not in the Tricholomataceae.
Clavaria is a genus of fungi in the family Clavariaceae. Species of Clavaria produce basidiocarps that are either cylindrical to club-shaped or branched and coral-like. They are often grouped with similar-looking species from other genera, when they are collectively known as the clavarioid fungi. All Clavaria species are terrestrial and most are believed to be saprotrophic. In Europe, they are typical of old, mossy, unimproved grassland. In North America and elsewhere, they are more commonly found in woodlands.
Phaeomarasmius is a genus of fungi in the family Tubariaceae. It was formerly thought to belong in the family Inocybaceae. The genus has a widespread distribution, and contains about 20 species.
Simocybe is a genus of fungi in the family Crepidotaceae. The genus is widely distributed, and contains 25 species.
Alnicola is a genus of fungi in the family Hymenogastraceae of the order Agaricales. The genus has a widespread distribution, and contains 60 species that usually form mycorrhizal relationships with species of Alder. The genus name is synonymous with Naucoria, with the correct genus being Alnicola according to the most recent taxonomic treatment.
Destuntzia is a genus of truffle-like fungi in the family Gomphaceae. The genus contains five species found in North America. It is named after late American mycologist Daniel Elliot Stuntz.
Hysterangium is a genus of truffle-like fungi in the family Hysterangiaceae. The genus is widespread, especially in temperate regions, and contains more than 60 species. Hysterangium was circumscribed by Italian mycologist Carlo Vittadini in 1831.
Leucangium is a genus of ascomycete fungi. The genus was circumscribed by French mycologist Lucien Quélet in 1883. Although classified in the Helvellaceae in the past, molecular analysis indicates it is closely related to the genus Fischerula and Imaia, and therefore must be placed in the Morchellaceae. The genus includes two species, Leucangium ophthalmosporum Quél. and L. carthusianum Paol., and both of them produce sequestrate ascoma, globose to ellipsoidal ascus, and dark olive-colored to grayish green, smooth, fusiform ascospores.
Imaia is a fungal genus in the family Morchellaceae found in Japan, and in the Appalachian Mountains of the US. A monotypic genus, Imaia was circumscribed in 2008 by James Martin Trappe and Gábor M. Kovácsto to contain the truffle-like species formerly known as Terfezia gigantea when molecular analysis demonstrated that its DNA sequences were markedly different from those of Terfezia. The fruit bodies of Imaia gigantea are spherical to roughly elliptical to irregular in shape, brown, and usually develop cracks in age. The interior gleba comprises brown pockets of asci separated by white veins. The spores are spherical or nearly so, up to 70 µm long, and enclosed by a thick epispore.
Entophlyctis is a genus of fungi currently classified in the family Chytriomycetaceae. The genus, widespread in temperate regions and contains about 20 species.
