Truffle Genus: Chondrogaster

Chondrogaster sp. basidiospore scale = 10 µm

Kingdom: Fungi Phylum: Basidiomycota Order: Hysterangiales Family: Mesophelliaceae

Spore Characters

Surface: Covered with a thick, irregular, amorphous outer layer or a distinct reticulum 2-3 µm tall.
Shape and Size: Longitudinally symmetric, ellipsoid to ellipsoid-fusiform, 10-15 x 6-8 µm; attachment straight, truncate.
Wall: Single, thin.
Color in Water: Pale brown to dark brown.
Melzer's Reaction: Not distinctive.
Comments: Chondrogaster is in the Mesophelliaceae (Hysterangiales) and restricted to association with Myrtaceae in Australia or where introduced with exotic eucalyptus plantations.

View photos of Chondrogaster spores

Sporocarp Characters

Shape and Size: Globose to subglobose, 8-20 mm broad, often in clusters of two to several adherent sporocarps.
Peridium: White to pale yellow-brown, strongly attached to the surrounding soil or organic matter by a profuse outgrowth of hyphae or rhizomorphs, thin, readily separable from gleba.
Gleba: With small, labyrinthine chambers filled with spores in a gelatinous or cartilaginous matrix, the overall consistency tough and rubbery; chamber walls narrow, white to gray to almost black.

View photos of Chondrogaster sporocarps

Name Derivation

Named by French botantist and mycologist René Maire (1878-1949) from Greek chondro- (cartilaginous) and -gaster (literally "stomach" but in mycology referring generally to Gasteromycetes, i.e. puffballs), hence "cartilaginous puffball" in reference to its rubbery consistency (1925).

Distribution

Australian natives, Chondrogaster spp. have been introduced with Eucalyptus species in California, southern Europe, North Africa, and Asia.
Season: Autumn and winter.
Species known from North Temperate Plantations: Three, two as yet undescribed.

Keys and Descriptions

Chondrogaster pachysporus Maire, is described in detail by Malençon (1975) under the name Hysterangium incarceratum. Chondrogaster angustisporus is described by Giachini et al. (2000).