The Morchellaceae are a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

ascomycete Ascomycota is a phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, forms the subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes. It is the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species. The def ...

fungi in the order

Pezizales The Pezizales are an order of the subphylum Pezizomycotina within the phylum Ascomycota. The order contains 16 families, 199 genera, and 1683 species. It contains a number of species of economic importance, such as morels, the black and whit ...

. According to a standard reference work, the family has contained at least 49

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

distributed among four

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

. However, in 2012, five

that produce ascoma that are sequestrate 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 no ...

were added. The best-known members are the highly regarded and commercially picked true

morel ''Morchella'', the true morels, is a genus of edible sac fungi closely related to anatomically simpler cup fungi in the order Pezizales ( division Ascomycota). These distinctive fungi have a honeycomb appearance due to the network of ridges ...

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

ribosomal DNA The ribosomal DNA (rDNA) consists of a group of ribosomal RNA encoding genes and related regulatory elements, and is widespread in similar configuration in all domains of life. The ribosomal DNA encodes the non-coding ribosomal RNA, integral struc ...

of many of the

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)
'' Verpa'' (terrestrial)
'' Kalapuya'' (hypogeous)
'' Imaia'' (hypogeous)
'' Leucangium'' (hypogeous)
'' Fischerula'' (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. '' Verpa'' 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 In fungi, an ascospore is the sexual spore formed inside an ascus—the sac-like cell that defines the division Ascomycota, the largest and most diverse Division (botany), division of fungi. After two parental cell nucleus, nuclei fuse, the ascu ...

s are ellipsoid, smooth, and usually

hyaline A hyaline substance is one with a glassy appearance. The word is derived from , and . Histopathology Hyaline cartilage is named after its glassy appearance on fresh gross pathology. On light microscopy of H&E stained slides, the extracellula ...

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Ascomycota families Taxa named by Ludwig Reichenbach Taxa described in 1834