White truffle (Tuber Magnatum Pico):

The name comes from the latin “magnatum”, of magnates, of rich sirs. (Pico, 1778).

The shape of the carpophore can vary a lot: round, rounded, with cavities, sinuous, depending on the type of earth in which it gets formed. The peridium or peel  has a smooth surface, yellow ochre or yellow olive-coloured, but sometimes also grey greenish, while the gleba or pulp is is white yellowish-coloured with nut brown or brownish tones. The several tonalities of colour are in relation with the degree of ripening, with the type of ground and with the forest species to which it has lived in symbiosis with. The perfume is paricularly marked and agreeable with an unmistakable and characteristic tenuous garlicky inkling. The taste is very tasty and typical, it gets exalted when it gets in contact with hot food. The favourite habitat of white truffles is formed by a marleous ground with a good quantity of sand and a moderate percentage of clay. It is a species that prefers fresh environments like the humid zones of

the bottom of the valleys or the margins of the ditches. The truffle grounds are also in the inner part or on the margins of woods or in farmed lands under isolated plants. It lives in symbiosis with lindens (in particular with the ones along the streets), poplars and willows (along waterways), white oaks, Turkey oaks, European white oaks, hornbeams and hazels. The ripening period and the consequent commercialization goes from October to December.

Bianchetto truffle (Tuber Albidum Pico o Tuber Borchii Vitt.)

The name "albidum" derives from Latin , white-coloured (Pico, 1788), while “borchi” comes from the surname of the count De Borch to whom Vittadini (1831) dedicated this species for being the first one who described it. The carpophore is generally round, but also humped; usually of small dimensions: in loose grounds and in cultivated lands it can get to bigger dimensions. The peridium or peel is smooth and has a very variable from the whitish ochreous to the dark orange and the rust colour and sometimes it is maculated. The gleba or pulp is initially whitish, in some examples it changes with the ripening to a tawny colour; sometimes sooty; reddish brown or even violaceous: pretty large veins, not numerous, branched, whitish that tend to get brown with the ripening and once they get in contact with the air. Its perfume is definitely garlicky and penetrating. The taste is very marked. As habitat it prefers loose and sandy grounds even if it can adapt itself to more difficult

environments too. It fructifies particularly in the littoral pine forests (maritime and domestic pines) and in the hilly ones (black pine and Corsican pine). It’s possible to find it in the broad-leaved woods, pure or mixed like oak woods of white oaks and Turkey oaks on the well exposed sides. The ripening period and the consequent commercialisation goes from January to March.

Black winter  truffle (Tuber Melanosporum Vitt.)

The name derives from the Greek "melanos" "sporum", with black spores (Vittadini, 1831).

The carpophore is mostly round shaped, but sometimes it is also irregular and rounded if it grows in grounds with abundant skeleton. The peridium or peel has a warty surface, with pyramidal warts with depressed apex which adhere strongly to the gleba. The colour of the peridium is black, sometimes with ferruginous zones, in the examples with little ripening it tends to be bright red.

The gleba or pulp is dark black tending to the violaceous or the reddish; the veins are whitish close and thin, with contours well definite and accompanied by two brown stripes, translucent at the sides. The perfume is aromatic, not too sharp, agreeable, with an inkling of chocolate sweetness and an alcoholic brandy note. The taste is exquisite, and that’s why  it gets called “sweet black” truffle. As its habitat the Norcia (or Perigord) truffle prefers sedimentary grounds, usually well drained for the porosity and the cracking of the mother rock and for the high content of the skeleton.

They are cracked and very chalky, it lives in typical environments, hot and sunny, like those of xerophile and thermophile oakwoods, where it starts the symbiosis in particular with white oaks and evergreen oaks, but also a hornbeam and hazels.  Characteristics of these truffle grounds is a flat ground, that is an area  without vegetation, that forms under the foliage of the symbiont plants, after the mycelium has produced an hormone, which inhibits the germination of the seeds of the surrounding herbaceous plants. In the ripening period and the consequent commercialisation goes from November to March.

Black summer truffle (Tuber Aestivum Vitt.)

The name derives from the Latin "aestivum", which grows in summer (Vittadini, 1831).

The carpophore has a rounder shape, but sometimes it is also irregular. The peridium or peel  has a warty surface, black-coloured, with big prominent pyramidal warts, that give it a typical rugosity and a certain consistence. The gleba or pulp is usually hazel- coloured, more or less yellowish in the ripe truffles, often also of a clearer colour; it is ploughed by numerous whitish veins, some thin and others wider, very branched and variously anastomized. The perfume is delicate and agreeable, it reminds vaguely of the aroma of mushrooms: slight when it’s young, more intense when it’s completely ripe. The taste is similar to that of ceps.

For its habitat the black summer truffle prefers particularly grounds full of calcium and magnesium by nature, rich of fine and gross constituents, with an aerated and lumpy structure. The truffle grounds are located in woods and at the margins of clearings, along cultivated fields and

the hedges of hawthorn, always in sunny environments, predominantly in starts the symbiosis with the white oak and the hazel, but also with the Turkey oak, the European white oak and the black hornbeam. The presence of T. Aestivum can be more or less highlighted by the characteristic areas vegetationless called flat ground. The period of ripening and the consequent commercialisation goes from May to September.

Black autumn truffle (Tuber Uncinatum Chatin)

The name derives from the Latin "uncinatum",  for the membraneous crests of the spores that  look like  hooks (Chatin, 1887). It’s very similar to the Tuber Aestivum (Vitt.) of which, for some authors, it constitutes a variety. The carpophore has a rounder shape, but sometimes it is also slightly irregular. The peridium or peel has a warty surface, black-coloured, with pyramidal warts, protruding, of medium size, that give it a good rugosity and a certain consistence.

The gleba or pulp is dark, almost chocolate-coloured when the ripening is complete. The perfume is delicate and agreeable, but a lot more intense than the black summer truffles. The taste is very marked and its favourite habitat is the wood: more or less sparse, more or less mixed. Escapes from the zones too much exposed to the drying rays of the sun and grows in the semishaded or completely shaded. The truffle grounds are in woods mixed of Turkey oak, white oak and hornbeam that can be considered the symbiont plant par excellence. It doesn’t show net contours of the flat ground, often it is on the contrary absent and the truffles can be found

under the leaves or between the first layers of decomposed litter. The ripening period and the consequent commercialisation goes from October to December.

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