Tuber indicum

Description

The Asian Black Truffle, Tuber indicum, was described based on a collection found in northwestern Himalayan India (Cooke & Massee 1892). This species was then rarely mentioned in the literature until Zhang & Minter (1988) named another species, T. himalayense, based on a part of the same collection. These two Asian Black Truffles or the Chinese Black Truffles, are hardly distinguishable by morphological characters (Wang & Liu 2009), yet recent DNA sequences indicated that both taxa are independent.

This mushroom belongs to the Tuberaceae (Pezizales, Pezizomycetes). This ectomycorrhizal Ascomycota establishes a mutualistic symbiosis with oak, and mountain pines in the Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan at an altitude of 2.000 to 2.500 metres in a temperate climate. It produces hypogeous ascomata. The edible fruit body is harvested in China, and it has been accidentally implanted in North America and Italy. Tuber indicum is morphologically and phylogenetically related to the Perigord black truffle (Tuber melanosporum).

There is taxonomic confusion with Chinese truffles. Molecular studies suggest that Tuber indicum and Tuber sinense are the same species. Tuber himalayense would be a different truffle, better gastronomically.

Tuber indicum is unappreciated in their country of origin (China) and is exported in large quantities to European markets because of its low price. They look like Tuber melanosporum, but they have no aroma.

Common names: Chinese Black Truffle.

Mushroom Identification

1. Ascomata

   Hypogeous, subglobose, regular in form, sometimes lobed, 2-5 (10) cm in size, warted, black-brown. Warts 2-3 mm across, pyramidal, 4-6-sided, flattened, like eroded, irregular in form.

2. Gleba

   Something elastic solid, whitish at first, becoming black to purplish-black at maturity, marbled with numerous, thin, white, branching veins.

3. Odor

   Faint, tuber-like

4. Taste

   Faint, rubbery, something pungent

5. Habitat

   Most truffles today come from the Chinese provinces of Yunnan y Sichuan, where they are associated with mountain pines at an altitude of 2.000 to 2.500 meters in a temperate climate. Tuber indicum was originally described from specimens collected in India and associated with Quercus. They ripen from November to March.