Black truffle tree – Turkish hazel

Turkish hazel (Corylus colurna) mycorrhized with Black truffle (Tuber melanosporum).

container size: 6 x 6 x 13 cm

Black truffle – Tuber melanosporum (Périgord or French Truffle)

Season: October – March

The iconic ‘Périgord’ truffle is the finest black truffle, undoubtedly the king of all truffles. It is normally round and has a slightly rough surface. Its carpophore has a grayish-brown color with shades of black. They live in symbiosis with hazelnut and oak trees, in the Mediterranean in particular. The black truffle is primarily harvested from October to mid-March, and has an exquisite, very strong, robustious, and musky aroma.

Turkish hazel (Corylus colurna) also known as the Constantinople hazel is a medium-sized, deciduous tree with a stately, symmetrical, pyramidal habit, more narrowly columnar when young. The bark becomes corky with age and sometimes peels away. The broad, green, oval leaves have a serrated edge, and turn a rich yellow before leaf-fall. Yellow catkins 3 ½”/8cm long appear in early spring. In autumn, edible hazelnuts with a deeply fringed husk rather like a sweet chestnut case, are borne on the tree, and are very attractive to squirrels. Turkish hazel holds the RHS Award of Garden Merit. It is a good urban street-tree, as it tolerates paving, and, unlike lime, does not drop sticky honeydew.

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