''Fevansia'' is a

fungal 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 th ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

in the family

Albatrellaceae The Albatrellaceae are a family of fungi in the order Russulales. The family contains 9 genera and more than 45 species. Description Most genera in the family produce fruit bodies which have typical mushroom morphology, with caps and stems. Ot ...

. 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 "unispec ...

genus, it contains the single rare

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'', ''Peziz ...

-like species ''Fevansia aurantiaca'', found in

old-growth forest An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological featur ...

s of

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. The name ''Fevansia'' honors Frank Evans of the North American Truffling Society, who collected the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

specimen. ' is

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 ...

for "pale orange", referring to the color of the

peridium The peridium is the protective layer that encloses a mass of spores in fungi. This outer covering is a distinctive feature of gasteroid fungi. Description Depending on the species, the peridium may vary from being paper-thin to thick and rubber ...

Description

Truffles are fungi that have evolved to be

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 no ...

, or below the ground, and thus they have reduced morphological features. Some of the features commonly analyzed on truffles are the peridium, or the outside, the

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 continu ...

, which is the inner tissue which contains the

spores In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many plants, algae, f ...

, and the spores themselves. The

of ''Fevansia'' is 100–200

µm The micrometre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American spelling), also commonly known as a micron, is a unit of length in the International System of Unit ...

thick. The gleba is firm and moist and the color is pale orange with either a pink or an orange tint. The spores are 10–13 by 3.5–5 µm, spindle-shaped, and smooth and appear in large groups to be gray-yellow and appear pale yellow when observed singly.

Classification

The fungus was originally classified as a member of the family

Rhizopogonaceae ''Rhizopogonaceae'' are a family of fungi in the order Boletales. The family, first named and described by botanists Ernst Albert Gäumann and Carroll William Dodge in 1928, contains 2 genera and 151 species. The genus ''Fevansia'', formerly thou ...

(order

Boletales The Boletales are an order of Agaricomycetes containing over 1300 species with a diverse array of fruiting body types. The boletes are the best known members of this group, and until recently, the Boletales were thought to only contain boletes. T ...

) because of its general morphological similarity to the genera ''

Alpova ''Alpova'' is a genus of fungi in the family Boletaceae. The genus contains about 20 species of ectomycorrhizal false-truffles that collectively have a widespread distribution, especially in northern temperate areas. The genus was circumscribed b ...

'' and ''

Rhizopogon ''Rhizopogon'' is a genus of ectomycorrhizal basidiomycetes in the family Rhizopogonaceae. Species form hypogeous sporocarps commonly referred to as "false truffles". The general morphological characters of ''Rhizopogon'' sporocarps are a simpl ...

'' section ''Rhizopogonella''. Recent (2013)

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

analysis, however, indicates that ''Fevansia'' is a member of the family

in the order

Russulales The Russulales are an order of the Agaricomycetes, (which include the agaric genera ''Russula'' and '' Lactarius'' and their polyporoid and corticioid relatives). According to the ''Dictionary of the Fungi'' (10th edition, 2008), the order con ...

. For this reason, it is suspected to be

mycorrhiza A mycorrhiza (from Greek μύκης ', "fungus", and ῥίζα ', "root"; pl. mycorrhizae, mycorrhiza or mycorrhizas) is a symbiotic association between a fungus and a plant. The term mycorrhiza refers to the role of the fungus in the plant ...

l (like all other known ''Albatrellus'' species), although this has not yet been confirmed.

Habitat, distribution, and ecology

''Fevansia aurentiaca'' truffles are found in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

but are uncommon. Truffles are

by nature, leading to a certain degree of difficulty in finding them. As a result, there are few specimens available for genetic analysis. Most of the ''Fevansia'' specimens can be found in the Mycological Herbarium of

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

. Truffles are most commonly found in forest ecosystems, where they form symbiotic relationships with trees, one example of this symbiotic relationship is

ectomycorrhiza An ectomycorrhiza (from Greek ἐκτός ', "outside", μύκης ', "fungus", and ῥίζα ', "root"; pl. ectomycorrhizas or ectomycorrhizae, abbreviated EcM) is a form of symbiotic relationship that occurs between a fungal symbiont, or mycobi ...

(ECM). While most truffles form ectomycorrhizal relationships, it is unclear is this is true of ''F. aurentiaca''. There are no DNA matches to ECM root tips that suggests ''Fevasia'' forms these relationships. It is most likely, however, because it is most often found under ECM forming

Pinaceae The Pinaceae, or pine family, are conifer trees or shrubs, including many of the well-known conifers of commercial importance such as Cedrus, cedars, firs, Tsuga, hemlocks, larches, pines and spruces. The family is included in the order Pinales, ...

. The new DNA evidence that puts ''Fevansia'' in the Albatrellaceae also suggests that it is an ECM symbiont, like most members of that family.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5446055 Fungi of the United States Russulales Russulales genera Monotypic Basidiomycota genera

Description

Classification

Habitat, distribution, and ecology

See also

References