The Morchellaceae are a

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 ...

of ascomycete fungi in the order Pezizales. According to a standard reference work, the family has contained at least 49

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

distributed among four genera. However, in 2012, five genera that produce

ascoma An ascocarp, or ascoma (), is the fruiting body ( sporocarp) of an ascomycete phylum fungus. It consists of very tightly interwoven hyphae and millions of embedded asci, each of which typically contains four to eight ascospores. Ascocarps are mos ...

that are

sequestrate Sequestrate may refer to: *pertaining either to secotioid Secotioid fungi are an intermediate growth form between mushroom-like hymenomycetes and closed bag-shaped gasteromycetes, where an evolutionary process of gasteromycetation has started ...

and

hypogeous Hypogeal, hypogean, hypogeic and hypogeous (; ) are biological terms describing an organism's activity below the soil surface. In botany, a seed is described as showing hypogeal germination when the cotyledons of the germinating seed remain non ...

were added. The best-known members are the highly regarded and commercially picked true morels of the genus '' Morchella'', the thimble morels of the genus ''

Verpa ''Verpa'' is a genus of ascomycete fungi related to the morels. Resembling the latter genus in edibility and form, the common name early morels is popular. There are five species in the widespread genus. ''Verpa'' comes from the Latin for ''erec ...

'', and a genus of cup-shaped fungi '' Disciotis''. The remaining four genera produce the sequestrate fruit bodies. Analysis of the

ribosomal DNA Ribosomal DNA (rDNA) is a DNA sequence that codes for ribosomal RNA. These sequences regulate transcription initiation and amplification, and contain both transcribed and non-transcribed spacer segments. In the human genome there are 5 chromo ...

of many of the Pezizales showed the three genera ''Verpa'', ''Morchella'', and ''Disciotis'' to be closely related. Thus they are now included in the family Morchellaceae.

Genera

'' Costantinella'' (anamorph)
'' Disciotis'' (terrestrial)
'' Morchella'' (terrestrial)
''

'' (terrestrial)
''

Kalapuya The Kalapuya are a Native American people, which had eight independent groups speaking three mutually intelligible dialects. The Kalapuya tribes' traditional homelands were the Willamette Valley of present-day western Oregon in the United Sta ...

'' (hypogeous)
'' Imaia'' (hypogeous)
''

Leucangium ''Leucangium'' is a genus of ascomycete fungi. The genus was circumscribed by French mycologist Lucien Quélet in 1883. Although classified in the Helvellaceae in the past (''e.g.'', in ''Dictionary of the Fungi'', 10th edition, 2008), molecular ...

'' (hypogeous)
''

Fischerula ''Fischerula'' is a genus of two truffle-like fungi in the family Morchellaceae. First described from central Italy by Oreste Mattirolo in 1928, the genus name honors Swiss mycologist Eduard Fischer. The type species ''Fischerula macrospora'' is ...

'' (hypogeous)

Description

Other than the anamorph genus '' Costantinella'', the three remaining genera of Morchellaceae are distinguished by ascocarp morphology. '' Morchella'' species have an ascocarp with a sponge-like pileus, with a hollow stipe and pileus. ''

'' species have a cup-like or thimble-shaped, smooth or wrinkled pileus above a hollow stipe. '' Disciotis'' has a cup-like pileus with vein-like hymenial folds and a small or nonexistent stipe. 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 are ellipsoid, smooth, and usually hyaline.

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q656782 Ascomycota families Taxa named by Ludwig Reichenbach Taxa described in 1834