Summer truffle (Tuber aestivum)
Systematics:- Department: Ascomycota (Ascomycetes)
- Subdivision: Pezizomycotina (Pesizomycotins)
- Class: Pezizomycetes (Pecicomycetes)
- Type: Tuber aestivum (Summer truffle (Truffle black Russian))
Other names:
Truffle black Russian
- Scorzone
- Truffle saint-jean
- Summer black truffle
Summer truffle (Latin Tuber aestivum ) is a mushroom of the genus Truffle (Latin Tuber) of the Truffle family (Latin Tuberaceae).
Refers to the so-called ascomycetes, or marsupial mushrooms. Its close relatives are morels and stitches.
Fruit bodies 2.5-10 cm in diameter, bluish-black, black-brown, surface with large pyramidal warts of black-brown color. The pulp is initially yellowish-white or grayish, later brownish or yellow-brown, with numerous whitish veins forming a characteristic marble pattern, very dense at first, looser in older mushrooms. The taste of the pulp is nutty, sweetish, the smell is pleasant, strong, sometimes it is compared to the smell of algae or forest litter. Fruit bodies are underground, usually occurring at a shallow depth; old fungi sometimes appear above the surface.
Forms mycorrhiza with oak, beech, hornbeam and other broad-leaved species, less often with birches, even less often with pines, grows shallowly (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 Russian Federation, truffles ripen at different times, and they can be harvested from late July to late November.
This is the only representative of the Tuber genus in Russia. Information about the finding of the winter truffle (Tuber brumale) has not been confirmed.
The main regions in which the Russian black truffle bears fruit quite often and annually are the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus and the forest-steppe zone of Crimea. Over the past 150 years, individual finds have occurred in other regions of the European part of Russia: in the Podolsk, Tula, Belgorod, Orel, Pskov and Moscow regions. In the Podolsk province, the mushroom was found so often that local peasants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. engaged in its collection and sale.
Similar species:
Perigorsk truffle (Tuber melanosporum) is one of the most valuable true truffles, its flesh darkens more with age - to brown-violet; the surface turns rusty when pressed.