''Imaia'' is a fungal
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
in the
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
Morchellaceae
The Morchellaceae are a family of ascomycete fungi in the order Pezizales. According to a standard reference work, the family has contained at least 49 species distributed among four genera. However, in 2012, five genera that produce ascoma ...
found in Japan, and in the
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...
of the US. A
monotypic
In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...
genus, ''Imaia'' was circumscribed in 2008 by
James Martin Trappe and
Gábor M. Kovácsto to contain the
truffle
A truffle is the fruiting body of a subterranean ascomycete fungus, predominantly one of the many species of the genus ''Tuber''. In addition to ''Tuber'', many other genera of fungi are classified as truffles including '' Geopora'', '' Pe ...
-like species formerly known as ''Terfezia gigantea'' when
molecular analysis demonstrated that its
DNA sequences were markedly different from those of ''
Terfezia''. The fruit bodies of ''Imaia gigantea'' are spherical to roughly elliptical to irregular in shape, brown, and usually develop cracks in age. The interior
gleba
Gleba (, from Latin ''glaeba, glēba'', "lump") is the fleshy spore-bearing inner mass of certain fungi such as the puffball or stinkhorn.
The gleba is a solid mass of spores, generated within an enclosed area within the sporocarp. The contin ...
comprises brown pockets of
asci separated by white veins. The
spores are spherical or nearly so, up to 70
µm long, and enclosed by a thick
epispore.
Taxonomy
The generic name ''Imaia'' honors Japanese mycologist
Sanshi Imai
was a Japanese mycologist of Hokkaido Imperial University.
Eponymous taxa
*'' Clitocybe imaiana''
*''Imaia
''Imaia'' is a fungal genus in the family Morchellaceae found in Japan, and in the Appalachian Mountains of the US. A monotypic genus ...
(1900-1976), who collected the
type specimen,
while the
specific epithet ''gigantea'' alludes to the large size of the specimens in the type collection, one of which measured .
References
External links
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q6002956
Fungi of Asia
Fungi of North America
Pezizales
Monotypic Ascomycota genera