Wright J.E. 1987. Bibliotheca Mycologia 113: 158.

Tulostoma montanum Patouillard (Fig. 101; Pls. X: 5; XLVIII:5) - Cat. Rais. Pl. Cell. Tunisie, p. 70. 1897. Atlas, pl. III, fig. 2.

= T. patagonicum Speg. var. andinum Speg., An. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires 6: 187. 1898.

Etym.: The name refers to the montane habitat of the species.

Spore-sac subglobose, up to 18 mm diam. Exoperidium loosely hyphal to appressed, sometimes appearing almost submembranous, persistent at the base as a ring. Endoperidium ochraceous orange to light brown, papyraceous when adult, glabrous in the exposed portions. Mouth circular, slightly but notoriously projected, up to 2 mm diam. Gleba clay coloured. Stem up to 45 x 5 mm, finely striate in the upper fourth, strongly squamose in the rest; scales outwardly reddish brown (appearing like a trunk of Araucaria); when decorticated wood-colour; ending basally in a mycelial bulb.

Endoperidium formed by hyphae similar to those of capillitium, much branched and septate, swollen at the septa, which are coloured. Spores coloured, globose, conspicuously ornamented, appearing echinulate when observed under L.M.; under SEM the ornamentation appears as tuberosities widened at the apex and anastomosed in crests, and provided with a flaring apiculum; 4.7-6.7 µm diam. Capillitium hyaline, septate, branched; threads swollen at the coloured septa, thick-walled with visible to solid lumen, disjointable with blunt ends; 3.3-8.1 µm diam.

Habitat: In sandy soils in arid regions, sometimes forming large circles.

Distribution: Africa: Algiers. North America: United States, including Hawaii. America: Argentina. Illustration: Patouillard (op.cit.).

Holotype: Algiers, Haute Plateau between Tebessa and Bon Chebka, I. 1893 (FH!).