Tuber melanosporum

Precious black truffle(Tuber Melanosporum Vittadini)

DIFFUSION:it is produced and picked almost exclusively in Italy,France,Spain and eastern countriescountries.

CULTIVATION AREAS:there are many areas suitable for its cultivation.It is considered the most interesting truffle for cultivation.

COMMERCIAL VALUE:high,thanks to the excellent organoleptic characteristis and to various types of culinary use.There is a constant market demand with prices continuing high.

PICKING TIME:November-March.

Tuber melanosporum Vittad. Monographia Tuberacearum :36,plII fig.3 (1831)
Ascocarp Morphology. Ascocarp subglobose or lobed, orifice or cavity absent, 1-7(-10) cm in diameter, black or brown, with warts, warts angulated, color of spore-bearing tissue brown or purple or black, veins narrow and numerous. Peridium 400-700 micron, outermost layers 200-300 micron, red-brown (only the first layers of cells), anatomical structure pseudoparenchimatic with roundish cells (in the middle layer the cells are radial enlonged), cell tangential dimension 5-15 micron, cell radial dimension 4-10 micron, innermost layers 200-400 micron, color hyaline (yellowish) or yellow-brown, anatomical structure pseudoparenchimatic with roundish cells or plectenchymatic, cell tangential dimension 4-8 micron, cell radial dimension 4-8 micron, external cystidia absent. Sterile veins plectenchimatic.

Asci ans spores Morphology. Asci globose, major axis 90-140 micron, minor axis 80-120 micron, number of spores per ascus 1-6, irregularly clustered.

Spores ellipsoid, major axis 29-32-35 micrometer lenght, minor axis 20-23-26 micrometer lenght, color dark brown, spines; ornamentation length 2-3 micron.

Distribution. Habitat temperate; Putative plant host Quercus, or Corylus, or Ostrya, or Carpinus, or Tilia, or Cistus, or Pinus.

DNA polymorphism. ITS restriction pattern with EcoRI 250-300 bp, or 300-350 bp; SphI 250-300 bp, or 300-350 bp; HincII 50-100 bp, or 100-150 bp, or 400-450 bp; DNA sequence ID of the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 regions TMU89359.

Mycorrhizae morphology. Mycorrhizae emanting hyphae absent, or rare; anatomy of emanating hyphae: clamps absent; color of emanating hyphae hyaline; color of very tip whitish, or ochre, yellowish brown, or brown; color of older parts ochre, yellowish brown, or brown; cystidia absent, or present; needle like; color pale yellow, or ochre; intercalate swelling absent; ramification absent, or present; abundant; monopodial, or dichotomous (apically); proximal, or medial; anatomy of the mantle pseudoparenchymatus with rounds cells, or pseudoparenchymatus with epidermoid hyphal cells" like a puzzle".