Truffles


Most people will have heard of the European gourmet truffles, fungal fruitbodies that develop underground. Those species do not occur naturally in Australia, but have been introduced. However, Australia is rich in native fungi that produce produce fruitbodies in similar ways. Some people would confine use of the word truffle to the European gourmet species and insist on everything else being called truffle-like. However, many use the word truffle in a broad sense, to include anything that is truffle-like. In technical works you will also see the phrases hypogeous fungi or sequestrate fungi applied to truffles.

 

In general, truffles are found wholly underground or at least partially buried – but some appear on soil and there are even a few stalked truffles. Most truffles are more or less spherical or ellipsoid (albeit sometimes with irregular bumps) and, unless you look inside, you may think you have an immature puffball or stinkhorn. From the outside a stalked truffle could be mistaken for an immature mushroom, with the  stem developed but the cap not yet open. Cut a truffle open and you will usually see numerous tiny chambers within, either empty or filled (depending on species).


Truffles

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14 Jun 2025

It's relatively common for people to upload sightings which may actually contain multiple species.E.g. photos of a plant that may also have captured an insect on one of the leaves OR a photo containin...


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Discussion

Heino1 wrote:
24 Jul 2024
Possibly a Pisolithus

Unverified Truffle
Heino1 wrote:
17 Jun 2024
Looks like one of the truffles with no (or a very evanescent) skin - perhaps a Gautieria.

zz - truffle
Heino1 wrote:
29 May 2024
In an earlier comment I noted that various truffles have white(ish) exteriors. Hence a view of such an exterior contains almost no information. I collected some specimens from the group Tim photographed and show a few of them here: https://canberra.naturemapr.org/sightings/4573249. For an internal view of the Austrogautieria referred to by Tim, see this sighting: https://canberra.naturemapr.org/sightings/4571293.

Hysterangium 'grey-green'
Heino1 wrote:
16 May 2024
The inset in the second photo shows a number of spores. They are very slightly roughened and measure about 8-11 x 5-7 micrometres. For the moment I've put this in Thaxterogaster. For some years the genus was subsumed into Cortinarius, but more recently was resurrected, albeit to incorporate both truffle-like fungi and standard mushroom-like fungi - just as Cortinarius also includes both mushroom-like and truffle-like fungi. Some more checking in the future may see this sighting move into Cortinarius.

Thaxterogaster sp.
Heino1 wrote:
16 May 2024
Probably a truffle of some sort - but there are several genera with white exteriors.

Hysterangium 'grey-green'
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