Glomus macrocarpus

Sporocarp
Sporocarps small, up to 12mm broad, globose, subglobose, elongate, to irregular, often with embedded soil. Peridium, when present, white and cottony. Sporocarps often show young and mature spores at surface .

Spores
Sspores 90-180 µm broad, subglobose to globose, yellow brown to brown; typically attached to to a straight hyphae up to 100 µm long.

Habitat
Hypogeous in forests, meadows, and orchards; hypogeous or epigeous in greenhouses; found year round with a near world-wide distribution.

Edibility
Way too small to be considered for the table.

Comments
Although very small and easily overlooked, Glomus macrocarpum is rather common and widely distributed. Unlike Glomus macrocarpum, most species in the Glomales (Glomeromycota, Fungi) are microscopic. They all form a symbiotic relationship with herbaceous plants and some trees (e.g. redwood, Sequoia sempervirens and big-leaf maple, Acer macrophyllum). This relationship is known as Arbuscular Mycorrhizae (AM). The Glomales were previously placed in the Zygomycota, but molecular evidence shows a separate and distinct monophyletic lineage.