Subject: Desert Truffles

From: [email-masked] (Bruno Pretto & Paula Vopni)
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 1995 08:05:50

My next door neighbour was in Syria on an archeologigal expedition. At the 
market he was able to locate some desert truffles for me. He returned with one 
specimen weighing approx. 500 grams, for which he paid $ 10.00. It has a 
smooth outside skin unlike the french truffles. I plan to take some 
photographs of it before consuming it and I will post them on the net.
Can anyone tell me the latin name for this truffle.

  Bruno Pretto, Fun Guy Farm (Toronto,Canada).
      Home page http://www.io.org/~bpretto
      NAMA Trustee for Toronto Mycological Society.
      Secretary Oak Forest Mushroom Association (outdoor shiitake growers).

---

From: [email-masked] (Bruno Pretto & Paula Vopni)
Date: Sun, 16 Jul 1995 19:57:06

>Can anyone tell me the latin name for this truffle.

July 16
Have finally photographed and tasted this intriguing fungus. The exterior is 
dark brown, smooth textured. The interior is beige with white interlacing 
lines rather like the Italian white truffle.  The  flavour is very mild but 
rather pleasant, texture is somewhat crunchy. There is not much aroma to 
compared to the French black truffle.

But here is a good question for all you mycologists. Is this a mychorrizal 
species, and if it is what is it forming a symbiotic relationship with if 
there are no trees in the desert. 
  Bruno Pretto, Fun Guy Farm (Toronto,Canada).
      Home page http://www.io.org/~bpretto
      NAMA Trustee for Toronto Mycological Society.
      Secretary Oak Forest Mushroom Association (outdoor shiitake growers).

---

From: [email-masked] (Matthew Weinert)
Date: 17 Jul 1995 22:45:48 GMT

>      Secretary Oak Forest Mushroom Association (outdoor shiitake growers).

I'm sure that fungi do not only form mychorrizal symbiotic relationships
with trees. I'm sure that I have read somewhere that morels are thought to
be mychorrizal with some types of braken ferns. The only morel cap I have 
found, morels don't appear to be too common in Australia, was growing in 
amongst some bracken.

---

From: Thomas O'Dell <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 1995 10:37:50 -0700

Desert truffles, Terfezia and allies, are mycorrhizal with Helianthemum 
spp (Cistaceae) and probably other plants. There is some literature on 
this, but I dont have references handy. Not al ectomycorrhizal hosts are 
trees, or even woody plants, e.g. Kobresia myrosoides (Cyperaceae) is 
ectomycorrhizal and a sedge relative.

[email-masked]