Tuber melanosporum

The Tuber melanosporum is the highest-priced black truffle; last year it cost between $22 and $35 an ounce.

He inoculated their roots with Tuber melanosporum, the Périgord truffle, before setting them in his backyard seven years ago.

It is nearly identical in appearance to France's famous tuber melanosporum, the mysterious subterranean mushroom cherished by gastronomes all over the world.

Tuber melanosporum (Périgord truffle)

Some truffle exporters or delicatessen shops sell Chinese truffles into which extracts of the real 'Tuber melanosporum' are introduced.

As the weather grows colder, trained dogs in the Southwest of France begin sniffing ripening Tuber melanosporum, the famed black truffle.

This influx has created a problem because unscrupulous dealers in France have been mixing the two and selling them all as French truffles, tuber melanosporum, to restaurants.

"It's definitely misleading," said Mr. Pinto, adding that until the name truffle is internationally regulated and applies only to Tuber melanosporum, spotting fakes will be difficult.

It lacks the more expensive Perigord truffle, Tuber melanosporum, also black, and the fabulous white truffle, Tuber magnatum, which fetches five times the price of gold.

Use of the term truffle is also tolerated for the slightly inferior and cheaper tuber brumale, which is closely related to the tuber melanosporum and grows in the same areas.

Orthologs for the human FAM214A protein were found as far back as Tuber melanosporum, Talaromyces stipitatus, and Aspergillus nidulans, which all diverged approximately 1215 million years ago.

The oak trees that provided the fodder for medieval hogs were in large part sacrificed to agriculture, but enough remain to provide the symbiosis needed for Norcia's other claim to fame: Tuber melanosporum.

First, there is the basic distinction between the black truffle (Tuber melanosporum), found mostly in Spain and France, and the white truffle (Tuber magnatum), found mainly in Italy.

This is one of the more dramatic new ventures under way in the hunt for the lusty black truffle - Tuber melanosporum - which is currently at the height of its harvest here in France and elsewhere.

The season for European black truffles (tuber melanosporum) would normally peak around Valentine's Day, but last fall's weather in France and Italy was abnormally hot and dry: great for wine, bad for truffles.

Black truffles, known as Perigord truffles, Tuber melanosporum, are found only in certain areas of France, Spain, and to a lesser extent in Italy and Yugoslavia, where the white variety, T. magnatum, is more common.

(It has also made it possible for a rampant trade in Chinese truffles, Tuber indicum, which look like black truffles, or Tuber melanosporum, but lack their signature aroma and flavor, and sell for a fraction of the price.)

The white is Tuber magnatum, the black Tuber melanosporum, and though both have their earnest advocates, for my money, white truffles have it all over their cousins for flavor, for texture (a granular crumble that explodes in the mouth with even more flavor) and, above all, for aroma.