Suitability of lime trees for Tuber melanosporum culture: mycorrhizae, soil studies, and truffle harvest associated with Tilia platyphyllos and T. x vulgaris.

García-Montero L. G., Di Massimo G., García-Abril A. & Grande M. A. (2007) Suitability of lime trees for Tuber melanosporum culture: mycorrhizae, soil studies, and truffle harvest associated with Tilia platyphyllos and T. x vulgaris.

Sydowia 59 (1): 46 - 56.

Truffles are highly profitable cash crops which grow in forests of many Mediterranean regions. The most important studies on the ecology of Tuber melanosporum have been carried out in forests of Quercus, Corylus , and Ostrya . Although it has been reported that this truffle can form mycorrhizae also with Tilia , there are no studies on Tuber melanosporum fruiting body production associated with lime trees. For this reason, we have carried out a study on mycorrhizae, soils, and fruiting body production in river woods with T. platyphyllos and T. x vulgaris located in Central Spain. In the study area, we found 13 Tuber melanosporum burns associated with Tilia platyphyllos and other host plants. Burns associated also with Tilia showed less significant production than others with Quercus faginea, Q. ilex , and Corylus avellana . Nevertheless, our studies revealed that the soil properties of these river woods with Tilia are very favourable for Tuber melanosporum . However, we confirmed that in this region not a single burn had ever been found with T. melanosporum production associated exclusively with Tilia , without Quercus or Corylus presence. We conclude that at present Tilia platyphyllos and T.x vulgaris are of little interest to Tuber melanosporum truffle culture, as they hinder fruiting body production.

Keywords: Corylus avellana, Quercus faginea, Quercus ilex , truffle production, Central Spain.