Terfezia lusitanica, a new mycorrhizal species associated to Tuberaria guttata (Cistaceae)

Abstract

A new Terfezia species associated with Tuberaria guttata, Terfezia lusitanica sp. nov., is described from Spain and Portugal. This claim it’s based on the specimen’s distinct morphology and unique ITS-rDNA sequence. Macro and micro descriptions and phylogenetic analyses of ITS data are provided for T. lusitanica and discussed in relation to similar spiny-spored Terfezia species. T. lusitanica differs morphologically from other spiny-spored Terfezia, that share the same habitat, by the combination of its ochre peridium colour and spores size, and in its ITS nrDNA sequence from all other ITS sequenced Terfezia species. Among the morphologically similar species, T. fanfani has a reddish peridium, T. extremadurensis has distinctly larger spores and tuber-like gleba, and T. cistophila has smaller spores, a spermatic odour, and is never found in association with T. guttata.

Terfezia solaris-libera sp. Nov., A New Mycorrhizal Species within the Spiny-Spored Lineages

“…Currently, the described spiny spored Terfezia species exclusively associated to T. guttata in acid soils are T. fanfani Mattirolo O, et al [13], T. extremadurensis Bordallo J, et al [6] and T. lusitanica Bordallo J, et al [14]. The present study describes a new spiny spored Terfezia species in association with T. guttata in sandy acid soils, found in Alentejo (Portugal).…”

“…T. solaris-libera sp. nov. Is morphologically different from other Terfezia species previously described [6,7,13,14,[36][37][38][39][40]. The images here presented serve not only the species description goal but also are intended to be used as tools for mycologists dealing with morphological identification of Terfezia species.…”

“…This host plant is characterized by high ecological plasticity and by substantial variations in the breeding system with different subspecies and varieties being recognized [32,33]. This, as recently highlighted [14], can have an impact on the specificity of the associated Terfezia species. The overall scarcity of information on the host plant of the different species of Terfezia was also recently discussed and in the case of the T. guttata the care in collecting information should go a step-forward towards the reconstruction of a co-phylogeny of host species varieties and Terfezia symbionts, disentangling eventual specificity dynamics and co-evolutionary patterns [11].…”

“…Asci and ascospores were examined using a Leica DM750 microscope equipped with a digital camera (Leica ICC50 W). For identification, ascomata were compared with the descriptions from Bordallo, et al [6,7,14] and Mattirolo, et al [13].…”

Lack of knowledge on ecological determinants and cryptic lifestyles hinder our understanding of Terfezia diversity

“…Adhering to these these stipulations, we have developed a case study in Portugal, where until 2018 Terfezia richness was greatly overlooked, with only three species documented. Since then, five more Terfezia species have been recorded T. cistophila, T. extremadurensis, T. lusitanica, T. pini and T. solaris-libera (Bordallo et al 2018;Louro 2020;Louro et al 2020Louro et al , 2021 and the soil main features and putative host plant were registered. In the present work we reassess the diversity of this genus and characterize Terfezia ecology within the framework of ecological preferences, while also probing the intraspecific variability of the Terfezia taxa in analysis.…”