Fruit-body: globose to ovoid, 20-40 mm broad, pale ochraceous, covered in small pyramidal warts, and when it is cut it shows three layers, an outer thin yellowish zone, an inner thicker compact white zone and within this a purplish black area full of spores separated into chambers by bands of sterile white tissue; the first two zones make up the ‘rind’.
Spores: spherical, blackish brown, warty, 24-32 µm in diameter; eight contained in globose asci.
Habitat & Distribution: This fungus is not uncommon in the surface layers of pine woods at the junction of needle debris and mineral soil. E. muricatus Fries is similar, but differs in the marbled flecked interior.
Tuber aestivum Vittadini English truffle
Description:
Fruit-body: subglobose except for basal flattening, up to 80 mm broad, covered in 5-6-sided pyramidal scales, dark brown to violaceous, white then greyish brown within, separated by a network of veins radiating from the basal cavity.
Spores: very large, ellipsoid, light or yellowish brown and ornamented with a prominent network, borne in two’s and sixes in subglobose asci and variable in size, 20-40 × 15-30 µm.
Plate 81. Subterranean fungi and fungus-parasites
![[Larger illustration]](#467779198995390083_illo245lg.png.id-73494356306253566.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}