Elaphomyces granulatus  

Anamorph: not known.
Teleomorph: ascomata hypogeous, sometimes appearing at or near the surface, 15-40 mm diam., irregularly subglobose, firm, leathery, becoming hard when dry, dull yellowish brown, densely covered with fine warts, the surface often with yellowish mycelium binding soil particles, forming an easily separable crust. Warts 0.1-0.25 mm diam., polygonal, pyramidal or blunt. Odour usually slight, not distinctive. Cortex yellowish-brown, 200-400 µm thick including warts, composed of agglutinated, thick-walled hyphae 3-5 µm in diam. Peridium white, uniform in appearance, not marbled, variable in thickness, 0.5-1.8 mm thick, composed of hyaline or pale yellowish, closely interwoven hyphae 3-6 µm in diam., their walls slightly thickened and often encrusted with fine particles. Gleba stuffed with ascogenous hyphae, pinkish-buff when immature, at maturity developing a powdery mass of blackish-brown spores. Asci 35-48 x 25-40 µm, subglobose, thin-walled, evanescent, 5- to 8-spored. Ascospores 20-27.5 (-29) µm diam. including the ornamentation, globose, at first hyaline, becoming blackish-brown and virtually opaque to transmitted light when fully mature, ornamented with rods or spines ca 3 µm high, formed in a gelatinous exosporium, irregularly coalescing when dry.

Description adapted in part from Pegler et al. (1993).