Truffle Genus: Loculotuber

Kingdom: Fungi Phylum: Ascomycota Order: Pezizales Family: Tuberaceae

Spore Characters

Surface: Alveolate-reticulate, up to 6-10 µm tall.
Shape and Size: Globose to broadly ellipsoid or citriform, 30-50 (-55) x 30-35 (-50) µm.
Wall: Single, +/-2 µm thick.
Color in Water: Yellow to yellow-brown.
Melzer's Reaction: Not distinctive.
Comments: Alvarez et al. (1992) note that Loculotuber is an intermediate form between as yet unidentified discomycetous ancestors and the genus Tuber with its solid ascomata. Its spores differ from those of the genus Tuber by having an obscure flange around each end of the spore, but this is hard to detect.

View photos of Loculotuber spores

Sporocarp Characters

Shape and Size: Subglobose to irregular or deeply furrowed, 0.5-4 cm in diameter.
Peridium: Composed of interwoven to parallel hyphae, +/- 5 µm in diameter. Surface smooth to pubescent in patches. Yellow or brown-yellow.
Gleba: Brown marbled with narrow, white or cream veins. Composed of "empty chambers lined with hymenia of asci and paraphyses."
Odor: Not distinctive.

Name Derivation

Named by Spanish forest ecologists Isabel Alvarez and Javier Parlande and American mycologist James Trappe (1992) from Latin loculo- (locule) and tuber (truffle), in reference to the loculate sporocarp.

Distribution

France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Algeria, and Tunisia. Associated with hosts in the family Cistaceae and in forests of Quercus suber.
Season: March through June.
Species known from North Temperate Forests: One, Loculotuber gennadii.

Keys and Descriptions

Alvarez et al. (1992) and Montecchi and Sarasini (2000).