Misplaced Pages

Kalaharituber
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Ascomycota
Class:	Pezizomycetes
Order:	Pezizales
Family:	Pezizaceae
Genus:	Kalaharituber Trappe & Kagan-Zur (2005)
Species:	K. pfeilii
Binomial name
Kalaharituber pfeilii (Henn.) Trappe & Kagan-Zur (2005)
Synonyms
Terfezia pfeilii Henn. (1895)

Kalaharituber is a fungal genus in the family Pezizaceae. It is a monotypic genus, whose single truffle-like species, Kalaharituber pfeilii, is found in the Kalahari Desert, which spans the larger part of Botswana, the east of Namibia and the Northern Cape Province of South Africa.

Taxonomy

The fungus was first described scientifically in 1895 by German mycologist Paul Christoph Hennings as Terfezia pfeilii. It was moved to its own genus in 2005 by James Trappe and Varda Kagan-Zur.

Description

Fruiting bodies can be up to 12 centimetres (4+3⁄4 in) in diameter. These weigh approximately 200 grams (7 oz), although larger rains (which affect weight) can cause them to weigh twice as much. These fruits grow close to the surface, which causes surface cracks on the ground above after rains. These fruiting bodies can occur as much as 40 cm away from the main hyphae.

Habitat

Kalaharituber pfeilii is found the Kalahari Desert, as well as in other arid regions of South Africa, Angola, Botswana and Namibia. It is found in soils with a pH ranging from 5.5 to 6.5, with a sand content varying from 94%-97%, a clay content varying from 2%-5% and a silt content varying from 1%-4%.

Ecology

Kalaharituber pfeilii is known to form an ectomycorrhizal relationship with Citrillus lanatus (watermelon), and is suspected to have a number of other possible relationships with other plant species. These include Sorghum bicolor, Eragrostis spp., Grewia flava, several species of acacia, and Cynodon dactylon.

It is eaten by meerkats, hyenas, baboons and bat-eared foxes.

Conservation

The current populations of K. pfeilii are thought to be in deterioration, with possible causes advanced being over-harvesting, climate change or the land practices used in K. pfeilii habitats.

Edibility

Kalaharituber pfeilii is eaten by humans. According to a case study by the Australian National Botanic Gardens, the fruiting body is eaten by the Khoisan and other indigenous peoples of the Kalahari. Some commercial use of the species occurs.

References

1. Lumbsch TH, Huhndorf SM. (December 2007). "Outline of Ascomycota – 2007". Myconet. 13. Chicago, USA: The Field Museum, Department of Botany: 1–58. Archived from the original on 2009-03-18.
2. ^ "Desert truffles - Australia and the Kalahari". www.anbg.gov.au. Australian National Botanical Gardens. Retrieved 2017-01-27.
3. ^ "Home - Kalaharituber pfeilii F3 v1.0". genome.jgi.doe.gov. Retrieved 2017-01-29.
4. ^ Initiative, The Global Fungal Red List. "Kalaharituber pfeilii". iucn.ekoo.se. Retrieved 2017-03-26.
5. Hennings, P. (1895). "Fungi camerunenses I". Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie. 22: 72–111.
6. Ferdman, Y.; Aviram, S.; Roth-Bejerano, N.; Trappe, J.M.; Kagan-Zur, V. (2005). "Phylogenetic studies of Terfezia pfeilii and Choiromyces echinulatus (Pezizales) support new genera for southern African truffles: Kalaharituber and Eremiomyces". Mycological Research. 109 (2): 237–245. doi:10.1017/S0953756204001789. PMID 15839107.
7. ^ "Desert Truffles" (PDF). FUNGI Magazine.

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (March 2017) Click for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Misplaced Pages. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Misplaced Pages article at ]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Kalaharitrüffel}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Misplaced Pages:Translation.

• Fungi of Africa
• Pezizaceae
• Monotypic fungus genera
• Taxa named by James Trappe
• Pezizales genera