New records of truffle taxa in Tuber and Terfezia from Turkey

Abstract

Turkey has one of the richest floras in the northern hemisphere as it is located at the convergence of 3 phytogeographical regions: Euro-Siberian, Mediterranean, and Irano-Turanian. This is reflected in the high number of plant taxa, particularly plant families that have truffles associated with them. The forests of these regions are dominated by ectomycorrhizal families including Pinaceae, Fagaceae, Betulaceae, Cistaceae, Salicaceae, and Malvaceae. There is a long history of mycological exploration in Turkey, with hundreds of papers published since 1915 (Solak et al., 2007; Türkoglu et al., 2008; Sesli & Denchev, 2010; Doğan & Aydın, 2010a, 2010b; Türkoğlu & Kuyumcu, 2010; Allı et al., 2011; Riccioni et al., 2011). Of the more than 2000 taxa of fungi recorded from Turkey, there have only been 23 taxa of truffles reported (Sesli & Denchev 2010; Gücin et al., 2010). In the present study, 3 new records (Tuber mesentericum Vittad., Tuber nitidum Vittad. and Terfezia leptoderma Tul. are identified and added to the knowledge of the macrofungal flora of Turkey.

Citation

Castellano, Michael Angelo; Turkoglu, Aziz. 2012. New records of truffle taxa in Tuber and Terfezia from Turkey. Turkish Journal of Botany. 36: 295-298.