desert truffles, hypogeous pezizales (ascomycota), are difficult to identify due to evolutionary convergence of morphological characters among taxa that share a similar habitat and mode of spore dispersal. in this paper we document the presence of picoa lefebvrei (pat.) maire (=phaeangium lefebvrei) in iran and use phylogenetic analysis of the its and 28s rdna to show that this species belongs ...

desert truffles, hypogeous pezizales (ascomycota), are difficult to identify due to evolutionary convergence of morphological characters among taxa that share a similar habitat and mode of spore dispersal. in this paper we document the presence of picoa lefebvrei (pat.) maire (=phaeangium lefebvrei) in iran and use phylogenetic analysis of the its and 28s rdna to show that this species belon...

The species concept within the genus Picoa Vittad. is here revisited in light of new molecular and ecological data obtained from samples collected throughout the Mediterranean basin. Two highly diverse widespread clades and four additional minor lineages were significantly supported by three genes dataset (ITS, 28s LSU and RPB2) inferences for 70 specimens. The two widespread clades occur in ve...

Picoa species are hypogeous desert truffles, which can be found in semi-arid ranges of North Africa, West Asian, South of Europe and Middle East, including Iran (Moreno et al. 2000, Jamali & Banihashemi 2012, 2013). Picoa species form symbiosis mainly on roots of annual and perennial herbaceous plants of the Helianthemum, including H. ledifolium and H. salicifolium var. salicifolium (Jamali & B...

In this study, six taxa of micromycetous fungi collected from Golestan province (N Iran) during spring and summer of 2010, are reported. Melanospora zobelii on Picoa lefebvrei, Diachea leucopodia on Sambucus nigra, Choanephora cucurbitarum on Brassica oleracea, Trichurus spiralis on Prunus domestica, tuber of Solanum tuberosum and seeds of Gossypium hirsutum and Dictyosporium heptasporum on dea...

terfezia, picoa and tirmania, so called desert truffles, are mycorrhizal fungi mostly endemic to arid and semi-arid areas of the mediterranean region, where they are associated with helianthemum and carexspecies. the aim of this work was to study the identification, molecular analysis, distribution and hosts of these pezizalean hypogeous fungi in iran. among the specimens, terfezia claveryi, ti...