''Morchella disparilis'' is an Ascomycete

fungus A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from t ...

in the family ''

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 ...

''. Described as new to science in 2016, ''M. disparilis'' appears to be confined to the Mediterranean basin and is so far known from

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

and

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. Its most striking feature is the exceptionally deep ''sinus'' (the bent at the attachment of the

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

with the stem), intermediate in depth between half-free morels of the ''

Morchella semilibera ''Morchella semilibera'', commonly called the half-free morel, is an edible species of fungus in the family Morchellaceae native to Europe and Asia. DNA analysis has shown that the half-free morels, which appear nearly identical on a macroscopi ...

'' clade and typical ''Distantes'' species.

Taxonomy and phylogeny

''Morchella disparilis'' was described as new to science in 2016 by Loizides and colleagues, in an elaborate

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

and morphological study of the genus '' Morchella'' from the island of

, in which '' Morchella arbutiphila'' was also newly described. Because the species remained completely unknown until then and had not been detected in previous

assessments published from

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

and

, it had not been assigned an informal ''"Mel"'' designator. Molecular analysis of nucleic acid sequences from the internal transcribed spacer (ITS), the

elongation factor Elongation factors are a set of proteins that function at the ribosome, during protein synthesis, to facilitate translational elongation from the formation of the first to the last peptide bond of a growing polypeptide. Most common elongation f ...

EF-1α, and the RNA polymerase II (rpb1, rpb2) regions, strongly supported the

monophyly In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

of ''M. disparilis'', with sister-clade relationships to the ''Mel''-12/13/26/27 complex and 3.6% sequence divergence from its closest genealogical relative '' M. deliciosa'' (''Mel''-26). The

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

epithet of the species means "different" or "dissimilar", referring to its unusually deep ''sinus''.

Description

Morphology

The

fruit bodies The sporocarp (also known as fruiting body, fruit body or fruitbody) of fungi is a multicellular structure on which spore-producing structures, such as basidia or asci, are borne. The fruitbody is part of the sexual phase of a fungal life cyc ...

are small- to medium-sized with an elongated stipe in maturity. The

is 1–3(–4) cm high × 1–2(–3) cm wide, conical with olive-brown, greenish, olive-grey, or rarely pinkish tinges and is attached to the stipe with a distinctly deep, angular

sinus Sinus may refer to: Anatomy * Sinus (anatomy), a sac or cavity in any organ or tissue ** Paranasal sinuses, air cavities in the cranial bones, especially those near the nose, including: *** Maxillary sinus, is the largest of the paranasal sinuses, ...

. The longitudinal ridges are distant, flexuous, anastomosed and interconnected by sparse secondary ridges. The pits are usually large and irregularly shaped. The stipe is 1–4(–6) × 0.8–2(–2.5) cm, more or less cylindrical or inflated at the base, whitish or sometimes with ochre tinges, furfuraceous, hollow, short at first but gradually extends to become equal or longer than the cap. Fruit bodies have a typical, rather strong morel odour. The

ascospore An ascus (; ) is the sexual spore-bearing cell produced in ascomycete fungi. Each ascus usually contains eight ascospores (or octad), produced by meiosis followed, in most species, by a mitotic cell division. However, asci in some genera or ...

s measure (20–)22–26(– 27) × (12–)13–17(–18) μm, are ellipsoid in shape, hyaline (translucent) and have external droplets attached to the poles. Although they appear smooth under a light microscope, when viewed in lactophenol cotton blue or under a scanning electron microscope, the spore surface is faintly creased. The asci (spore-bearing cells) measure 230– 305 × 20–25 μm, are cylindrical to clavate, hyaline, and have a simple septum at the base. The paraphyses measure 135–205 × 10–12 μm, are hyaline, irregularly cylindrical, have variably shaped tips and 1–3 septa in the lower third or at the base. The acroparaphyses measure 110–170 × 15–40 μm, are fasciculate and polymorphic, with sparse capitate elements and 1–2 septa towards the base. The stipe surface is composed of variously shaped and poorly differentiated cells, from globose to cylindrical, clavate or pyriform, measuring 55–90 × 20–40 μm.

Similar species

Because of its unusually deep sinus, ''Morchella disparilis'' can sometimes be confused with ''

'' and other "half-free" morels such as '' M. populiphila'' or ''M. iberica''. All these species however grow in different habitats, have a deeper sinus attached to the

halfway up and generally have longer, smooth stipes. '' Morchella arbutiphila'', another species described from

, can sometimes be found in the same habitat as ''M. disparilis'', but produces larger fruit bodies with a shallower sinus. Microscopically, it has larger spores than ''M. disparilis'', often approximating or exceeding 30 μm in length and longer, distinctly catenulate terminal hyphae on the stipe 125–140 μm long.

Habitat and distribution

''Morchella disparilis'' fruits in spring in the

Mediterranean region In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin (; also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea) is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and wa ...

and is so far known from the island of

and

. It is found in the thermomediterranean zone, often among typically Mediterranean vegetation such as cypress trees ('' Cupressus sempervirens''), strawberry trees (''

Arbutus andrachne ''Arbutus'' is a genus of 12 accepted speciesAct. Bot. Mex no.99 Pátzcuaro abr. 2012.''Arbutus bicolor''/ref> of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae, native to warm temperate regions of the Mediterranean, western Europe, the Canary Islan ...

'', '' A. unedo''), or hawthorn (''

Crataegus azarolus ''Crataegus azarolus'' is a species of hawthorn known by the common names azarole, azerole, and Mediterranean medlar. It is native to the Mediterranean Basin and is a common plant there, growing on sites comparable to those the European common ha ...

'').

References

External links

*
''Morchella disparilis'' in Ascomycete.org
{{Taxonbar, from=Q24884442 Fungi described in 2016 Fungi of Europe disparilis