Truffle Genus: Torrendia

Torrendia pulchella basidiospore

Kingdom: Fungi Phylum: Basidiomycota Order: Agaricales Family: Amanitaceae

Spore Characters

Surface: Smooth.
Shape and Size: Ellipsoid to subglobose or oblong to subfusiform. 9-15 x 6-10 µm.
Wall: Single, thin with a blunt apiculus or thick-walled.
Color in Water: Hyaline.
Melzer's Reaction: Not distinctive.

View photos of Torrendia spores

Sporocarp Characters

Shape and Size: 6-15 mm. Subglobose, ovoid, or pulvinate. Margin enrolled and in contact with the stem. Stem and volva present.
Peridium: Dry, smooth, silky, or minutely fibrillose to roughened; often eroding away to reveal the gleba. Covered with patches of veil remnants. White or yellow-brown in age, in one species, staining yellow when bruised.
Gleba: White, composed of multiple empty chambers, appearing gelatinous at first, drying at maturity.
Odor: Not distinctive.

View photos of Torrendia sporocarps

Name Derivation

Coined by Italian mycologist and priest Giacomo Bresadola (1847-1929) (1902) in honor of the collector, Camillo Torrend (1875-1961), a Jesuit priest and fungus collector.

Distribution

Northern Africa, southern Europe, and western Australia. In sandy to silty soil.
Season: T. arenaria - May through July in wet weather, T. pulchella - November through April in wet weather.
Species known from North Temperate Forests: Two, T. arenaria and T. pulchella.

Keys and Descriptions

Bresadola (1902), Miller and Horak (1992) describe the species from the Northern Hemisphere. Bougher (1999) describes two more from Australia.