The new truffle genus Babosia and a new species of Stouffera from semiarid grasslands of Hungary

ABSTRACT

Truffles with distinct morphological and anatomical features were collected during a study of hypogeous fungi of semiarid sandy grasslands of the Great Hungarian Plain in Hungary, representing the westernmost localities of the Eurasian steppe belt. None of the ascomata were collected near ectomycorrhizal plant species, and none were identified as ectomycorrhizal during previous surveys in the collection area. We studied morphoanatomical characteristics of these truffles with light and scanning electron microscopy and investigated their phylogenetic positions based on analyses of different nuclear loci. The truffles were found to represent two novel lineages that grouped with the Marcelleina-Peziza gerardii clade of the Pezizaceae. One formed a distinct lineage, for which we propose a new genus Babosia with a new species Babosia variospora characterized by diverse spore ornamentation varying even within one ascus. The truffles in the other lineage clustered with the rarely collected American truffle Stouffera longii and share with it similar spore ornamentation and habitat features. However, our material differs from S. longii by geographic origin, the quick and strong coloration of the ascomata to dark gray at cut surface or bruised area, varying spore number in asci, and smaller spore size; thus, we describe it as a new species, Stouffera gilkeyae.

KEYWORDS:

• Ascomycota
• Pezizomycetes
• SEM
• sequestrate fungi
• systematics
• taxonomy
• 3 new taxa

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank especially Lili Zagyva, Bálint Zagyva, and Kivi, the outstanding truffling dog, for their help to find the specimens described here. Without them this work could not be carried out. We also thank Dr. Patrick Brandon Matheny and an anonymous reviewer for their valuable comments and suggestions on the first version of the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office, Hungary (NKFIH KH-130401 and K-109102), the ELTE Institutional Excellence Program supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH-1157-8/2019-DT), and the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to Dániel G. Knapp.