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Desert Truffles pp 3–20Cite as

Hypogeous Desert Fungi

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Part of the book series: Soil Biology ((SOILBIOL,volume 38))

Abstract

The term ‘desert truffle’ can be applied to multiple edible hypogeous fungi growing in arid areas throughout the world. Defining what a hypogeous fungus is, and what arid lands are, is hence critical to delimit this ecological group. We choose to define ‘hypogeous’ fungi as those species with closed or ‘sequestrate’ globose fruiting bodies growing totally under soil surface or partially covered by it. The terms ‘truffle’ and ‘tuberoid’ are applied to Ascomycetes species presenting asci, while ‘false truffle’ and ‘gastroid’ are preferred for Basidiomycetes, to highlight their evolution from ‘agaricoid’ habit, regarded in some cases as an adaptation to dry environments. The most prominent genera of desert truffles are mentioned, and keys are proposed for their identification within the Ascomycetes, Basidiomycetes, and the former Glomeromycetes. The most critical morphological traits used for these keys are briefly discussed, and some images to illustrate the criteria are provided.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to express our gratitude to Luis Monje and Ángel Pueblas of the Department of Drawing and Scientific Photography at the Alcalá University for their help in the digital preparation of the photographs, to Celestino Gelpi and Miguel Ángel Sanz for kindly providing some images.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dpto. Biología Vegetal, Univ. Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, 28871, Spain

    Gabriel Moreno, Pablo Alvarado & José Luis Manjón

Authors
  1. Gabriel Moreno
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  2. Pablo Alvarado
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  3. José Luis Manjón
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Correspondence to Gabriel Moreno .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Life Sciences Department, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel

    Varda Kagan-Zur

  2. Life Sciences Department, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel

    Nurit Roth-Bejerano

  3. Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel

    Yaron Sitrit

  4. Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain

    Asunción Morte

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Moreno, G., Alvarado, P., Manjón, J.L. (2014). Hypogeous Desert Fungi. In: Kagan-Zur, V., Roth-Bejerano, N., Sitrit, Y., Morte, A. (eds) Desert Truffles. Soil Biology, vol 38. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40096-4_1

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