Revision of the genus Morganella (Lycoperdaceae)

Abstract

Fructifications epigeous, 1-3 cm. in diameter, depressed-globose to turbinate; peridium double; exoperidium velutinous, furfuraceous, granular, tuberculose or spinulose, whitish, tan, flesh-colored, or deep red-brown to purplish-black; endoperidium papery above, thickened below, flaccid, smooth or reticulate, mouth irregular, apical; gleba pulverulent, without a true capillitium, paracapillitium abundant, glebal membranes abundant, pseudocolumella sometimes present, these elements all strongly cyanophilous; subgleba compact or chambered (sometimes almost indiscernible); spores globose to broadly ovoid, smooth, verruculose to spinose, 3.5-4.5 /* in diameter.Species usually growing on decaying wood. Type species. Morganella mexicana Zeller, Mycologia 40: 650. 1948. Type locality. Mexico. Specimens: Macbride, Sonora, Guaymas (NY). The material deposited by Zeller in the Morgan Herbarium at the University of Iowa cannot be found. The material from Newfield, New Jersey, Ellis 5013 (NY), cited as paratype by Zeller, has been identified by Kreisel (1967) as Morganella velutina (Berk, ex Mass.) Kreisel and Dring. Geographic distribution. Morganella is pantropical, with most of the species, M. fuliginea, M. velutina, M. puiggarii, and M. stercoraria, occurring in tropical America; M. velutina reaches the temperate zone in eastern North America, and M. puiggarii reaches it in South America; M. fuliginea covers a wide area in tropical America, and also occurs in West Africa; M. stercoraria occurs only Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 73-156851 Publication 1127 27 I MAY ] 5 1972 I AY 17 1Q7? blOLOGY LIBRAE 28 FIELDIANA: BOTANY, VOLUME 34in the West Indies; M. afra occurs in tropical Africa; M. purpurascens has a wide distribution in tropical Asia; M. samoense is known only from Samoa; M. compacta and M. subincarnata are the only two extra-tropical species M. compacta occurring only in New Zealand and M. subincarnata in the temperate zone of North America.It appears possible to me that the Caribbean region may have been the geographical center of development of Morganella, at least of the American species, and perhaps of all of them. Morganella fuliginea and M. velutina are especially abundant in Caribbean and circumcaribbean lands.Discussion. Morganella is easily distinguished from Lycoperdon, Calvatia, Bovista, and other members of the Lycoperdales, by its small size, habit of growing on wood, absence of capillitium, and the presence of abundant glebal membranes and paracapillitium. The peridium has two layers. The outer one is used to separate the species: it is velvety or velutinous in M. velutina and M. puiggarii; tuberculose in M. fuliginea, M. purpurascens, M. subincarnata, and M. samoense (the tubercules composed of pluricellular hyphae); granulose in M. afra; with large spines in M. compacta. The lignicolous habit is characteristic of all species of Morganella except M. stercoraria, which lives on cow dung. In the remaining Lycoperdales, only Lycoperdon pyriforme lives on decaying wood and Lycoperdon (Bo...

Morganella arenicola, a new species record from North and Northeast Brazil

“…A similar characteristic between these 2 species are the basidiospores (Figure 3) (Cunningham, 1926(Cunningham, , 1944, which display the same ornamentation pattern in scanning electron microscopy ( Figure 4). Other closely-related species, such as Morganella afra Kreisel & Dring, differ from Morganella arenicola in their endoperidium, which is areolate in the former, and in the occurrence of only the paracapillitium (Kreisel and Dring, 1967 close to M. arenicola, differs in its reticulate endoperidium and an irregular apical pore (Cunningham, 1944;Ponce de Leon, 1971), which is well defined in M. arenicola ( Figure 2). Morganella arenicola exhibits eucapillitium (Figure 3) as in Morganella pyriformis (Schaeff.)…”

“…With the aim of carrying out a comparative study, the holotype of Morganella compacta, from the New Zealand Fungal and Plant Disease Collection (PDD), was used. Macroscopic and microscopic analyses were conducted according to the literature (Zeller, 1948;Kreisel and Dring, 1967;Ponce de Leon, 1971;Suárez and Wright, 1996). Micromorphological dates were observed after rehydration in 5% KOH and/or with the aid of Melzer's reagent (Asef and Muradov, 2012;Kumari et al, 2013).…”

“…Only a short time ago was light shone on this interesting group of gasteroid fungi through the publishing of new records (Kreisel and Dring, 1967;Homrich, 1969;Barbosa et al, 2011) and new species (Cortez et al, 2007;Alfredo et al, 2012;Alves and Cortez, 2013) for the country, although review studies such as those of Ponce de Leon (1971) or Suárez and Wright (1996) from South America also included species of Morganella from Brazil. Taxonomic studies of very similar species require comparative analyses with type material in order to determine if they are in fact similar or not.…”

“…Morganella Zeller is a genus of puffballs widely distributed in tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions (Ponce de Leon, 1971;Kirk et al, 2008); however, there are few specific studies for Brazil. Only a short time ago was light shone on this interesting group of gasteroid fungi through the publishing of new records (Kreisel and Dring, 1967;Homrich, 1969;Barbosa et al, 2011) and new species (Cortez et al, 2007;Alfredo et al, 2012;Alves and Cortez, 2013) for the country, although review studies such as those of Ponce de Leon (1971) or Suárez and Wright (1996) from South America also included species of Morganella from Brazil.…”

First report of Morganella compacta (Agaricales, Lycoperdaceae) from South America

“…in 1948 and since then has been sporadically studied by a number of taxonomists such as Kreisel & Dring (1967), Ponce de León (1971), Morales et al (1974) and more recently by Suarez & Wright (1996), Krüger & Kreisel (2003), and Cortez et al (2007). According to Kreisel & Dring (1967) it has a similar distribution pattern to that of the genus Bovista Pers., with worldwide occurrence, although most of the species are only known from the neotropical zone.…”