Truffle Genus: Reddellomyces

Reddellomyces donkii ascospore

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

Spore Characters

Surface: Smooth in youth, developing crowded, rounded to irregular warts or rounded knobs and ridges.
Shape and Size: Globose or ellipsoid, 20-55(-60) µm or 19-28 x 15-28 µm.
Wall: Single, up to 3 µm thick.
Color in Water: Hyaline to yellow or pale brown, in one species, orange at maturity.
Melzer's Reaction: Not distinctive.
Comments: Ornamentation of spores of some species swells greatly in KOH (Trappe et al., 1992).

View photos of Reddellomyces spores

Sporocarp Characters

Shape and Size: 0.3-3 cm in diameter, subglobose, globose, ellipsoid, or pulvinate.
Peridium: Smooth and glabrous. White, cream when fresh, yellow-brown when dried.
Gleba: White or red-brown, composed of irregular or branched empty or spore-filled chambers.
Odor: Not recorded.

View photos of Reddellomyces sporocarps

Name Derivation

Coined by Trappe et al. (1992) in honor of Australian ecologist Dr. Paul Reddell.

Distribution

Western and southern Australia, Morocco, Algeria, Spain, Italy-Sardinia, and Israel.
Species known from North Temperate Plantations: Four, all introduced from Australia with Eucalyptus spp.

Keys and Descriptions

Trappe et al. (1992).