MYCORRHIZAE OF ASIAN BLACK TRUFFLES, TUBER-HIMALAYENSE AND T-INDICUM

With the introduction, to Europe. of Asian black truffles, sold like T uber melanosporum, is becoming necessary to get detailed information a bout their taxonomy and to characterize their mycorrhizae so to distin guish them from those of the European black truffles. In the present r esearch, mycorrhizae of Tube,. himalayense and T. indicum, obtained by the inoculation of Quercus pubescens seedlings with a sporal suspensi on of the single ascocarps. have been described and characterized. The two mycorrhizal types are very similar and only sometimes can slight differences be observed. From a first comparison of these two mycorrhi zal types with those of the European black truffles they appear to hav e a higher affinity with T. melanosporum than T. aestivum and their re lated species.