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The TROUFAPLUS COMPANY has been created to provide each gourmand with the update feature in terms of the truffle, gaining a full picture of what is called “the underground diamond”.
Truffles are a relatively rare species of an underground mushroom that grows in the roots of some trees or bushes.
Truffle is the generic name of all the underground fleshy mushrooms- fungi belonging to the family Tuberaceae and to the genera Tuber and Terfezia.
Their size is approximately 2-7cm, their color varies from grey black to white ochre and they grow underground in a depth of 6-15 cm.
Like all fungi they cannot compose the necessary substances to survive. In order to compensate this impossibility, they attach to some plants (trees or bushes), creating a relationship called “mycorrhizal symbiosis”, from which both parties benefit.
The symbiosis takes place in ligneous and forage plants and mainly in some forest species like hornbeams, hazels, pines, poplars, oaks, willows and lime trees.
Truffle is literally called “fruit-bearing fertile body” and attaches to the plant with a sprouting composition-structure called “mycelium”. The spawn textures of these fungi envelop the thin root hairs of the plants and suck mainly carbohydrates while the plant roots benefit, increasing thus their capability of absorbing from the soil water, nitrogenous substances and other elements like potassium, phosphate, iron and trace elements. It is calculated that up to 100 meters of mycelium textures are contained in a small spoon of soil in a healthy forest.
Truffle is formed underground on the root of the symbiotic plant. It has a round, irregular form, and its size varies between the size of a pea and that of an orange. On the exterior it is covered by a peel called “peridium” and the inner part called “flesh of the fruit or clod” contains millions of seeds that execute the re- productory function. Each genus of truffle contains seeds of different colours and sizes. Through a microscopic study, the classification of the genera is relatively easy. After the spouting of the seed, the “mycelium” is created, connecting the plant to the fungus, and “contaminating” the new roots lying in ground. During the maturity period, each genus of truffle emits its own smell.