Tuber uncinatum Chatin

The Uncinato truffle(Tber uncinatum Chat.)

DIFFUSION:it is produced and picked mostly in Italy and France.

PICKING AREAS:compared to the summer “scorzone”,the suitable cultivation areas are more limited.
COMMERCIAL VALUE:the “Uncinato” truffle is just emerging;its price is continuing high.

Due to its larger tuber size it has good productive results in the artificial truffle plantation.Thanks to its good organoleptic characteristics,this truffle is in constant demandboth on the national and on the foreign market.

PICKING TIME:September-December.

Tuber uncinatum Chatin La truffe. Ed J.B. Baillière, Paris (1892) Tuber aestivum Vittad. Monographia Tuberacearum :38,plII fig.4 (1831) specimens examined: CMI-UNIBO 1297-1 CMI-UNIBO 1291-12 CMI-UMNIBO 1152-8
Ascocarp Morphology. Ascocarp subglobose or lobed, orifice or cavity absent or present, 1-10 cm in diameter, brown or black, with warts, warts angulated, color of spore-bearing tissue brown, veins narrow and numerous. Peridium 200-400 micron, outermost layers 50 micron (Chevalier and Frochot, 1998), yellow-brown or red-brown, anatomical structure pseudoparenchymatic with angular cells, cell tangential dimension 10-15 micron (Chevalier and Frochot, 1998), cell radial dimension 10-15 micron (Chevalier e Frochot, 1998), innermost layers 150-300 micron, color hyaline (pale yellow), anatomical structure plectenchymatic, cell radial dimension 3 micron (hyphal diameter), external cystidia absent. Sterile veins plectenchimatic.

Asci ans spores Morphology. Asci globose, major axis 60-90(-110) micron (Pegler et al. 1993), minor axis 55-70 micron (Pegler et al. 1993), number of spores per ascus 1-6(-7), irregularly clustered.

Spores ellipsoid or subglobose, major axis 25-32 micrometer lenght (Chevalier and Frochot, 1998), minor axis 17-28 micrometer lenght (Chevalier and Frochot, 1998), color yellow or pale brown or medium brown, reticulation; ornamentation length 4-5(-8) micron (Chevalier and Frochot, 1993); number of meshes along the major axis 3-5.

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

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; color of older parts ochre, yellowish brown, or brown; cystidia absent, or present; wolly; color ochre; intercalate swelling present; ramification absent; anatomy of the mantle pseudoparenchymatus with angular cells.