black truffle may infect too herbs and shrubs

Elisa Taschen presented in the last conference in Cahors a work titled “Tri-partite interactions between the black truffle (Tuber melanosporum), the holm oak (Quercus ilex) and herbaceous truffle-grounds plants in mesocosm”

In this work they detected by DNA T. melanosporum on roots of the 30 endomycorrhizal plants but they could not prove intra-radical colonization.

We know that black truffle fruits sometimes right under several endomycorrhizal plants, like rosemary, thyme, juniper, Arbutus unedo, but we thought that maybe in wild truffieres it was the only place with shade or where some humidity can be kept in the middle of a sunny brule. But it looks that these plants may promote the development of truffle mycelium and maybe by extension the nutritional status of the host oak tree, through indirect plant-plant interactions.

From our latest research on biodiversity on truffieres, it seems increasingly certain that we need to look the truffiere as a whole ecosystem. The challenge is to manage this in intensive orchards, but easier on small scale or “boutique” plantations.

Cheers,

Marcos S. Morcillo

References:

Whose truffle is this? Distribution patterns of ectomycorrhizal fungal diversity in Tuber melanosporum brûlés developed in multi-host Mediterranean plant communities