Truffle guru Dr. Jim Trappe from the FSL in Corvallis, Oregon has confirmed the following identification of Montana hypogeous fungi.
| Tuber aevestium and Tuber magnatum, Two Famous Italian Truffles The dark summer truffle (top and left) is less esteemed and is used to flavor egg dishes. The white truffle is the worlds most expensive fungus, often selling for over $500 a pound. It is delicious served shaved over pasta, salad, or soup. (below) |
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One commonly reported truffle, an Ascomycete Barssia oregonensis turned up in several collections. It is fairly frequent in our area, being reported both in July and January under both mature Douglas fir and young regrowth. I find this truffle tasty and often drop ripe units into cognac before making them into a sauce.
Rhizopogon genus tubers turned up often as well. These 'pogies are related to Suillus and provide a lot of chuck for the local squirrels and rodents. Jerry Behling from Darby turned up some R. vinicolor, and he also picked a funny specimen of what I'd been calling vinicolor, which Dr. Trappe has since identified as subcaerulescens. I've found Rhizopogon rubescens in just about every county in western Montana.
Behling also turned up the rare Hydnotrya michaelis, an inedible wood truffle, and other members of this genus have turned up as well, some of which are listed as rare. Hydnotrya cerebriformis has been found near Glacier National Park, in moss, near black currants, maple, and huckleberry. The collecting data reads, "Milk chocolate brown exterior, convoluted, no differentiated tissue or membrane outside. Interior loosely folded, with a fine hyphal fuzz on some interior surfaces, flesh dark and brittle throughout. Pleasant musky, fungal odor".
Both Leucopheps magnata, a chalky white fungus with a crumbly texture, and L. spinispora have turned up in western Montana truffle collections
The strong smelling Gautieria monticola is commonly found in arcs inside the dripline of mature Douglas fir, from 3000 to over 7000 feet. Other members of this genus turn up less frequently. The strong smell of rotting onions has earned them the moniker of "skunk truffle" although squirrels are the ones eating them. Mixed with enough butter in the blender, a palatable truffle butter can be made with these powerful fungi.
Trufflers Dave Janssen and George Ladayne found some most interesting items in their prowls, whereabouts unknown. These included Tuber sphaerosporum, a first time find for Montana, and the brown, fruity smelling Alpova diplophloeus from under quaking aspen.
A less desirable sort of truffle, the genus Hysterangium, seems to turn up under dead or dying lodgepole pine, associated with decomposed logs, and submerged in the duff. These relatively common fungi seem to attract small mammals somehow, despite their lack of a strong smell (I find them by locating the divots the critters dig to find them) Their gray and gelatinous context remind me of immature Phallus sp. I've never heard of a human sampling this chewy and gelatinous group, but H. sublilacinus shows up in abundant fruitings, and the small mammals do find 'em.
The following is from Dan Wheeler:
Hysterangiums, are gelatinous/cartilaginous, have rather nice, aromatic aromas, (and are edible, BTW) becoming rather soft and aromatic in age: similar to overripe olives IMO.I have eaten these on two occasions. On the first, immature specimens were pureed in a food processor with butter, then used as a topping over baked potato. The second time I found more mature specimens that tasted nearly the same as very ripe olives, which I sampled in honey over french bread. This sample was not as tastey as the first, but it doesn't take much to figure out why. Why would anyone in their right mind blend olives and honey? I should have tried them blended into the filling for devilled eggs instead, or peeled and added to salad dressings or salads.
The Melanogaster tuberiformis shown here was found by Brandon Osman in June of 1995 in a rare riparian old growth experiencing regrowth through a break in the canopy. They were rather abundant, and smelled lovely when he brought them in. I froze them and after the ID by Dr. Trappe, thawed them out and made truffle butter in the blender. It was very strong tasting and delicious over pasta. |
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TRUFFLE UPDATE:
The Geopora cooperi shown here was found in a lawn inside the city limits. Many of the houses in the late 1800s and early 1900s were simply erected on the native prairie-forest ecosystem, without the attendant earth-moving we see today. The native gray squirrels eat these things like there's no tomorrow, but the introduced red squirrels in town didn't recognize it as food. I noted an experimental squirrel-bite taken out of one only after having monitored their growth for several days. These fuzzy truffles will get fist-sized and larger, I hear. Most I see are a third this size. |
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Elaphomyces, the deer truffle. Local wildlife biologist Chuck Jonkel once observed deer pawing at an area under a tree and uprooting things. He brought me back a big bag of them, saying the deer had told him where they were. The Europeans are rumored to eat and/or use medicinally this oddball of a fungus. The outer rind is tougher than a false puffball, and it snaps and is definitely crunchy if you chew it. Chuck said he could actually hear the deer crunching away and that is how he knew they’d found something. Elaphomyces are just one of several truffle-like fungi deer are known to eat.
Macowanites sp. a very rare form of gastroid Russula found just twice this last century, once by AH Smith in the 1960s and once by Larry in the 1990s. It has a smell of maraschino cherries, and it was found in an old growth, mixed age stand of Douglas fir and subalpine fir.
Hymenogaster sublilacinus a fairly common false truffle found at the edge of melting snow banks in the spring. I usually leave these for the squirrels, tho they dont seem in any hurry to pick them either; in fact, they did not rate highly on the Glacier Institute’s Columbia ground squirrel taste-o-meter, whereby various groupings of mushrooms are laid out by a ground squirrel hole and see which ones are there in the morning. They get pretty big. Maybe deer or elk eat them. They are also purple, and smell bad, two of the criteria I use to determine inedibility.
Rhizopogon rubescens, aka "Bob" or "Bob the Pogie" Bob is our commonest of hypogeous or nearly hypogeous fungi in this stretch of the northern Rockies, liking it plenty in stands of lodgepole pines from here to Banff. The squirrels like Pogies plenty and Bob certainly provides them with a lot of chuck, if you know what I mean... Bob the Pogie would turn up in cone caches, where squirrels had buried him with the cones. Some say for a midwinter snack, but I personally suspect the little guys use the pogies’ stink to locate their cache of nourishing but odorless pinecones under the snow.
Rhizopogon more closely related to the genus Suillus than any other. A Chinese Rhizopogon is dried and used externally to stop bleeding. They usually have a mild smell, but sometiimes develop a definite chocolatey smell. I just about never find ripe ones. The immature ones are lighter in color; the context gets darker with age. Very young ones may be white, yellow, or gray inside.
Alpova diplophloeus found under alder trees along old logging roads, in dense thickets. These had a very nice fruity smell, and the fellows ate them and said they were OK. I think I would rather make them into a truffle butter and spread it over toast. If you find one, post a notice on the website.
Tuber sphaerosporum This dime sized delicacy is a "true" truffle, in the genus with the big league Tubers. Found here in Montana, in a stretch of our nearly vanished old growth Doug fir stands. A rare find by Jerry of Darby.
Barssia oregonensis the "Cognac" truffle, these 2 pictures show the difference in appearance depending on conditions. They may be the size of peas up to peanuts and some get as big as a walnut. Always there is a pore on the underside of this truffle, and this is the best place to catch its scent.Squirrels love this one, and only rarely do I beat them to it. I once found it while skiing up to a cave in January at 6500 feet elevation. It was very snowy, but in the snow wells under the trees I saw some rodent diggings and pried a few out with the tip of my ski pole. The second photo shows some specimens picked in the summer under Doug fir. The ascomycete in the photo with truffle was found in proximity with the Barssia shown.
(Leucangia) Leucangia carthusiana, the Oregon Black Truffle Prized highly by squirrels and humans, this delicacy is served annually at the WMMA Truffle Dinners. This year we had a truffle dinner in Whitefish and one in Missoula. Over 70 people sampled this marvellous fungus. It was best enjoyed shaved fresh over potato leek cream soup or morel cream soup. Mmmmmm.
This secotiod fungus, probably a Thaxerogaster, had a strong aroma of roses, a lovely floral bouquet that got to be a bit cloying after a while. I didn't eat it, but I did smell it for quite a while.
Gautieria, the skunk truffles, are found in Montana.
For many years we have found various sorts of Gautieria, the strong-smelling skunk truffles, while on hikes in early July. Specimens have turned up in collections from Lolo NF, Flathead NF, and Kootenai NF, as well as from the Bitterroot NF. These hypogeous fungi, which are an important food source for small mammals, are genetically closely related to the Ramaria, or coral mushrooms. Recent work in classifying this perplexing group of fungi is being done by Dr. Jack States, and will be further dealt with in his upcoming book. Here are his comments regarding the Gautieria images we have posted, hypertext linked to the images.
In my study, the species epithet, Gautieria crispa was proposed in a doctoral dissertation by Stewart (1974) and not validly published. When this situation comes to ones attention is it best to indicate it as a provisional name, "nom. prov." However in this case, I am rejecting the name because it was a category for a handful of similar collections not identifiable under any other taxon. Most of the collections that Stewart placed in "crispa" are now found under the proposed epithet, G. fragilis States & Trappe. This will be a nom. prov. to the point when that name is accepted through valid publication.
With regard to the two photographs of G. monticola, you can see a great difference in their characteristics, especially coloration and internal tissue. I have identified and will publish on five new species in the G. monticola species complex. Gautieria species do not have a peridium at all but some have a cutis covering the matrix of spore bearing chambers called a "ramentum". The dark colored representative of G. monticola is probably G. rubescens States & Trappe in which the ramentum produces a sticky maroon exudate that oxidizes blackish. The other G. monticola2 photograph may actually be G. angustispora States & Fogel which is common in Idaho and Montana but less so in Oregon and Washington where G. monticola does indeed predominate.
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