Summer truffle (Black truffle) (Tuber aestivum) photo and description

Summer truffle (Tuber aestivum)

• Skorzone
• Truffle saint jean
• Summer black truffle

summer truffle (lat. Summer tuber) is a mushroom of the genus Truffle (lat. Tuber) of the Truffle family (lat. Tuberaceae).

Refers to the so-called ascomycetes, or marsupials. Its close relatives are morels and stitches.

Fruit bodies 2,5-10 cm in diameter, bluish-black, black-brown, surface with large pyramidal black-brown warts. The pulp is first yellowish-white or grayish, later brownish or yellow-brown, with numerous whitish veins forming a characteristic marble pattern, very dense at first, more loose in older mushrooms. The taste of the pulp is nutty, sweetish, the smell is pleasant, strong, sometimes it is compared with the smell of algae or forest litter. Fruiting bodies are underground, usually occur at shallow depths, old mushrooms sometimes appear above the surface.

It forms mycorrhiza with oak, beech, hornbeam and other broad-leaved species, less often with birches, even more rarely with pines, grows shallow (3-15 cm, although sometimes up to 30 cm) in the soil in deciduous and mixed forests, mainly on calcareous soils.

In different regions of the Federation, truffles ripen at different times, and their collection is possible from the end of July to the end of November.

This is the only representative of the Tuber genus in Our Country. Information about finding a winter truffle (Tuber brumale) has not been confirmed.

The main regions in which the black truffle bears fruit quite often and annually are the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus and the forest-steppe zone of Crimea. Separate finds over the past 150 years have also occurred in other regions of the European part of Our Country: in the Podolsk, Tula, Belgorod, Oryol, Pskov and Moscow regions. In the Podolsk province, the mushroom was so common that local peasants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. engaged in its collection and sale.

Similar species:

Perigord truffle (Tuber melanosporum) – one of the most valuable real truffles, its flesh darkens more with age – to brown-violet; the surface, when pressed, is painted in a rusty color.