Truffle Genus: Zelleromyces

Zelleromyces cinnabarinus basidiospore scale = 10 µm Zelleromyces scissilis ascospore scale = 15µm

Kingdom: Fungi Phylum: Basidiomycota Order: Russulales Family: Russulaceae

Spore Characters

Surface: Ornamented with rods and spines, lines and ridges, a partial to complete reticulum, or any combination of the above; rods and spines range from 0.5-2.5 µm tall; lines and ridges are usually less than 1 µm tall.
Shape and Size: Longitudinally symmetrical, globose to ellipsoid, 7-20 x 6-16 µm (excluding ornamentation); attachment straight, prominent on many species.
Wall: 1-4 layers, up to 2 µm thick.
Color in Water: Hyaline to brown.
Melzer's Reaction: Spore ornamentation may be strongly gray to purple or black or simply black-spotted; spore walls range from nonreactive to gray or purple. One rare species of Gymnomyces has nonreactive ornamentation with only a pale purple reaction from the spore wall. In this case, in order to be assured of a purple reaction, the spore must be compared in Melzer's and KOH.

View photos of Zelleromyces spores

Sporocarp Characters

Shape and Size: Subglobose to turbinate or irregular, 0.5-5 cm.
Peridium: Lacking to thick, smooth to felty or pubescent, when present white to orange-yellow or brown, sometimes rose to red-spotted, composed of interwoven hyphae and in many species with a turf of cystidia or hyphal tips on the surface.
Gleba: With small to prominent, rounded to labyrinthine chambers; columella lacking or present as a few, narrow, sterile veins or as a basal pad; color white to pink, orange-yellow or brown.
Odor: Not distinctive to iodine or chlorine-like.
Comments: Similar to Gymnomyces except that white to cream to orange latex exudes from cut surfaces of fresh sporocarps.

View photos of Zelleromyces sporocarps

Name Derivation

Named by preeminent American mycologists and colleagues Alexander Smith (1904-1986) and Rolf Singer (1906-1994) (1960) in honor of Professor S.M. Zeller, mycologist and pioneering specialist in taxonomy of truffle-like Basidiomycotina; combined with the Greek -myces (fungus), the name literally means "Zeller's fungus".

Distribution

Ectomycorrhizal forests of conifers and hardwoods in Europe, North America, Australia, and Asia.
Season: Autumn and early winter.
Species described from North Temperate Forests: Eight, two undescribed.

Keys and Descriptions

Singer and Smith (1960) cover most described species; Pegler and Young (1979) and Miller (1988) describe and illustrate representative spores. Trappe, Lebel, and Castellano update the nomenclature. All these authors referred to the species to the later name Zelleromyces. The "Arcangeliella" of these papers is now referred to as Gastrolactarius.