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| 'T. melanosporum cut in half' |
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| 'A baving sket full of truffles' |
Kingdom: Fungi
Phylum: Ascomycota
Class: Pezizomycetes
Order: Pezizomycetes
Family: Pezizales
Genus: Tuber
Species: melanosporum
A delicacy for some, the Tuber melanosporum (a.k.a., Black Winter Truffles), are commonly found growing symbiotically with the Oak tree in southern European countries. The surface texture is bumpy and dark brown to black when ready to harvest. Humans are known to use pigs or boars to search for truffles, but in recent times the animal of choice is the trained dog. Pigs/boars are notorious for eating these prized fungi and, when they have an estimated cost of $125 an ounce that can be a pricey meal to lose to the pig/boar. There are other varieties of truffles besides the Black winter truffle. (e.g., White truffle, Burgundy truffle, Black summer truffle, & the March truffle) to name a few. As fungi, they are more closely related to animals than to plants. Because of having very little chlorophyll, they are not dependent upon light and can grow in any direction.
The reason why T. melanosporum and other truffles are expensive is their difficulty to reproduce, and thus to locate. Interestingly, truffles are one of the very few fungi that produce sexually, needing a male and a female spore to reproduce. Francesco Paolocci, a scientist at the Plant Genetics Institute in Perugia, Italy, and other researchers are working on ways to get truffles to reproduce more frequently. If they were able to do so, the cost of truffles would come down; this would be bad for the truffle farmers, good for consumers!
T. melanosporum has a nutty, earthy, and mushroom aroma that invites many people to come and to eat. These fungi also have a history for thousands of years as being aphrodisiacs as well. This multipurpose specimen is used in: various recipes, butters, oils, and for medicine. So, save your money and one day you can afford to buy a piece of truffle gold, the T. melanosporum, commonly known as the Black winter truffle.
References:
Rocher, J.M. (2010). The Truffle. French Truffles. Retrieved on November 2, 2010:
http://www.french-truffles.com/history-truffles.php
Rubini, A. (2010). Tuber melanosporum: mating type distribution in a natural plantation and dynamics of strains of different mating types on the roots of nursery inoculated host plants. New Phytologist. Retrieved on October 31, 2010:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2010.03493.x/full
Unknown Author (2010). Truffles' sex lives unraveled, may be affordable now. New Kerala.com. Retrieved on November 2, 2010:
http://www.newkerala.com/news/world/fullnews-74874.html
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