Truffle Genus: Genabea
 Genabea cerebriformis ascospore scale = 20 µm |
Kingdom: Fungi Phylum: Ascomycota Order: Pezizales Family: Pyronemataceae |
Spore Characters
Surface: Smooth in youth, soon developing prominent spines.
Shape and Size: Ellipsoid to globose, 26-53 (-70) µm x 20-53 (-70) µm, excluding ornamentation.
Wall: Single, 2-5 µm thick.
Color in Water: Gray-yellow to brown.
Melzer's Reaction: Not distinctive.
Comments: The rare, ellipsoid-spored Genabea spp. are difficult to separate from the rather common spiny-spored Tuber species in the key. The Genabea spp. spores have broadly rounded ends and the spines are very crowded; the Tuber spp. spores, in contrast, tend to have more tapered rounding at their ends and uncrowded spines (plates 2 and 3 in Trappe (1979) illustrate these distinctions). Globose-spored Genabea spp. are paler than those of Hydnotrya spp. with globose, spiny spores, which are bright brown to dark brown.
View photos of Genabea spores
Sporocarp Characters
Shape and Size: Subglobose to convoluted or ridged, often with an opening to the convoluted, hollow interior, 0.2-2 cm in diameter.
Peridium: Yellow-gray to brown or black, verrucose, lacking surface hairs.
Gleba: An irregular chamber with a warty lining similar to the peridium; the lining overlies white to gray or gray-yellow flesh with pockets of inamyloid asci in an irregular palisade. Each pocket is separated from the other by sterile tissue.
Odor: Not distinctive to garlicky.
View photos of Genabea sporocarps