Introduction to Fungi, Third Edition

EUROTIALES
313
Fig11.21 Elaphomycesgranulatus.Two
ascocarps, one cut open to show
contents.
Fig11.22 Elaphomyces
granulatus. (a) Asci showing
seven and two ascospores.
(b) Mature ascospore.
cluster around E. crustosum (Peterson, 2000a).
Eupenicillium spp. produce cleistothecia with
very tough peridia. The ascospores have pulley
wheel-like flanges. Penicillium spp. associated with
Eupenicillium often produce thick-walled sclerotia,
and it is likely that these sclerotial forms are
cleistothecial forms which have lost their ability
to complete meiosis.
Talaromyces
The ascocarp of Talaromyces is rather different
from that of Eupenicillium in having a peridium
with soft cottony hyphae. It is thus a
gymnothecium rather than a cleistothecium.
Penicillium anamorphs of Talaromyces all belong
to the subgenus Biverticillium (LoBuglio et al.,
1993), with long tapering phialides which are
closely appressed to each other, rather than
divergent (Fig. 11.20). In this they resemble
Paecilomyces (Fig. 11.11c), some species of which
are also associated with Talaromyces (see
Table 11.2).
11.4.9 Elaphomycetaceae
Like so many other apparently diagnostic structures
of fungi, the hypogeous (¼ subterranean)
habit of the truffle has evolved independently
several times. Whereas the best-known edible
truffles belong to the Pezizales (see p. 423), the
Elaphomycetaceae are firmly included among
the Eurotiales (Geiser & LoBuglio, 2001). The
genus Elaphomyces contains the most common
hypogeous fungi of temperate climates, and
E. granulatus (Figs. 11.21, 11.22) and E. muricatus
can be collected throughout the year beneath the