Tulostoma morenoi V. Vlasenko & A. Vlasenko 2023, sp. nov.

Tulostoma morenoi V. Vlasenko & A. Vlasenko, sp. nov. Figs. 1, 2.

MycoBank: MB847495.

Description: —Spore-sac subglobose, 9 mm wide, 7 mm tall. Exoperidium indistinct, incrusting sand, remaining as a cup-like structure at the base of the spore-sac. Endoperidium thin, smooth, slightly creamy-brownish to grayish white. Mouth oval, indistinct. Socket inconspicuous. Stem slender, 2–3.5 mm wide, 30–35 mm tall, slightly creamy-brownish to grayish white, somewhat longitudinally furrowed to fissured and appressed scaly closer to the spore-sac, with a small basal mycelial bulb. Mature gleba orange brown. Capillitial threads (1.6)3.5–4(6.3) µm wide, hyaline, undulating, irregular thickness, thick-walled, with uneven inner walls, ramified. Septa rare, slightly widened up to strongly widened. Spores subglobose, regularly verrucose, 5.6–8.5 × 6.6–9.2 μm without ornamentation, 6.2–9.8 × 6.8–10.6 μm including warts. Warts are large, 6–7 on visible side of spore, 0.5–0.6 μm wide, 0.8–0.9 μm length, more or less isolated or merging into groups with small warts or forming ridge-like anastomoses at the base, visible on SEM.

Etymology: —The specific epithet honors Gabriel Moreno, Spanish mycologist, for his extraordinary work of study of gasteroid fungi.

Type: — RUSSIA. Republic of Tuva, Tandinsky district, near lake Kak-Khol, 51°21.415’ N, 94°23.497’ E, 701 m a.s.l, scattered shrub communities with Caragana pygmaea, on dry sandy soil, 8 July 2021, leg. A . Vlasenko, NSK 1014816 (holotype), GenBank: OQ241379 (ITS), OQ236484 (28 S).

Other specimens examined: — RUSSIA. Republic of Tuva, Tandinsky district, near lake Khadyn, 51°21.234’ N, 94°29.067’ E, 716 m a.s.l, sandy steppe, on dry sandy soil, 7 July 2021, leg. A . Vlasenko, NSK 1014982.

Ecology and distribution: —Occurs in dry saline sandy habitats along lake shores. Grows singly, not in groups. Known only from Republic of Tuva.