Tuber shii L. Fan & Y.W. Wang, 2016

Wang, Yanwei, Li, Xuedong & Fan, Li, 2016, Tuber shii sp. nov., a sister species of T. jinshajiangense from China in Puberulum group, Phytotaxa 269 (4), pp. 279-286 : 282-284

Tuber shii L. Fan & Y.W. Wang , sp. nov. ( Fig. 3 ).

MycoBank:—MB 817704

Type:— CHINA. Yunnan Province: Huili County, in soil under forest dominated by Pinus armandii , 28 Nov 2014, Cao 1505, FAN 409 ( BJTC).

Ascomata 0.6–3.5 cm in diam., irregularly subglobose, often with some superficial furrows, grey-white, pale grey-brown, pale brown, or yellow-white to brown, usually with distinctive silver-grey tints especially at furrows when fresh, surface finely puberulent to nearly smooth. Peridium two layers, 95–270 μm thick; outer layer pseudoparenchymatous, 55–120 μm thick, composed of subglobose to irregularly shaped cells 5–35 × 5–20 μm, with slightly thickened wall of 2 μm, large and small cells often inter-mixed, light brown walls at outermost cells; inner layer 40–150 μm thick, composed of interwoven hyaline hyphae, 2.5–5 μm diam., thin-walled. Cystidia arising from the outermost cells of peridium, hyaline to pale yellow-brown, thin-walled, 10–60 μm long and 2.5–5 μm wide at base, 1–3-septate, tapered apically. Gleba brown at maturity, marbled with narrow and rare white veins. Odour light; taste not recorded. Asci subglobose or ovoid, 75–100 × 55–82.5 μm, hyaline, thin-walled, 1–4-spored, sessile at maturity. Ascospores pale yellow to light brown at maturity, most regularly globose, often with subglobose or broad ellipsoid spores especially from 1-spored asci, 29–51.5 μm (x = 38.2 ± 6.4, n = 50) for regularly globose ascospores, and 29–56.5 × 24–46.5 μm (x = 42.6 ± 8.2 × 37.9 ± 5.0, n = 50) for subglobose or broad ellipsoid ascospores excluding alveolar ornamentation of 2.5–5 μm high, and usually 3–5(–6) meshes across the ascospore diameter.

Diagnosis:— Differs from T. jinshajiangense by possessing both globose and subglobose or broad ellipsoid ascospores, and from T. lijiangense by its grey ascomata.

Habit, habitat and distribution:— Hypogeous, gregarious, in soil under forest dominated by Pinus armandii in Yunnan Province, China. Only known from China.

Etymology:— In honour of Mr Bao-xiang Shi, a truffle hunter from Yunnan Province who has contributed many truffle samples in China.

Other material examined:— CHINA. Yunnan Province: Huize County, in soil under forest dominated by Pinus armandii , 28 Nov. 2014, Cao 1500, FAN404 ( BJTC), ibid., Cao 1501, FAN405 ( BJTC), all collected by J. Z. Cao ; Yunnan Province: Huili County, in soil under forest dominated by P. armandii , 23 Nov 2014, Cao 1527, FAN436 ( BJTC), collected by J. Z. Cao ; Yunnan Province: Baoshan City, in soil under forest dominated by P. armandii , 27 Nov. 2014, Cao 1504, FAN408 ( BJTC), ibid., Cao 1507-2, FAN414 ( BJTC), all collected by J. Z. Cao ; Sichuan Province: Panzhihua City, in soil under mixed woods dominated by P. armandii , 23 Nov. 2014, Cao 1520, FAN429 ( BJTC), ibid., Cao 1521, FAN430 ( BJTC) ; Cao 1522, FAN431 ( BJTC) ; Cao 1524, FAN433 ( BJTC) ; Cao 1528, FAN437 ( BJTC), all collected by J. Z. Cao .

Figures

FIGURE 3. Tuber shii (BJTC FAN409, holotype). a. Ascomata. b, c. Scanning electron micrograph of ascospores. d, e. Light micrograph (LM) of asci and ascospores.