A Preliminary Account of North American Species of Rhizopogon

Pp. 1-178; 95 text-figures, 7 full page plates (1 color plate from painting, 6 black-and-white photo-plates.  Original pale green printed wrappers, lettered in black on the spine and front cover, lg 8vo.  Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden, volume 14, no. 2.  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 simplex or duplex peridium surrounding a loculate gleba that lacks a columnella.  Basidiospores are produced upon basidia that are borne within the fungal hymenium that coats the interior surface of gleba locules.  The peridium is often adorned with thick mycelial cords, also known as rhizomorphs, that attach the sporocarp to the surrounding substrate.  The scientific name Rhizopogon is Greek for 'root' (Rhiz-) 'beard' (-pogon) and this name was given in reference to the rhizomorphs found on sporocarps of many species.  Rhizopogon species are primarily found in ectomycorrhizal association with trees in the family Pinaceae and are especially common symbionts of pine, fir, and Douglas fir trees.  Through their ectomycorrhizal relationships Rhizopogon are thought to play an important role in the ecology of coniferous forests.  Recent micromorphological and molecular phylogenetic study has established that Rhizopogon is a member of the Boletales, closely related to Suillus (from Wiki).  This volume is from the private research collection of University of Michigan mycologist Alexander H. Smith.