Imaia gigantea

[Alana McGee]

I’m flipping through my North American Truffles book and found on page 56 there is a species listed with a Distribution of “Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, but first discovered in Japan”.Alana have you ever heard of these? I live in this region. What struck me as odd was the reference to Japan. Road Trip!

[Alana McGee]

I AM SO GLAD YOU BROUGHT THIS UP.

I’ve been so busy I haven’t updated all the other threads on here with other truffle types etc.

I’ll make it a priority tomorrow to go through and populate some of that.

I VERY MUCH meant to mention it to you Lois. I have never actually seen one- nor have I been able to get hands on them, although I have requests out- but yes!!!! They are by you and they are REALLY good apparently.

It is closely related to, wait for it, DESERT TRUFFLES! It’s actually been renamed from that family group, and is closer to morels but I get away from myself….

This is the AMAZING thing about dogs. Once you start using them for research, or culinary fun in the woods for these purposes, we start finding out all kinds of things! This species is not all that well documented, again, so few well trained truffle dog on the east coast/ Japan/ (basically anywhere outside of the Meditteranean), but there are suspicions they are in many more places. They have found them in PA as well.

They actually do not know what their host species is but are found in mixed broadleaf forests and mixed conifer woods in your area. They are pretty shallow, usually in moss- upper 10 cm or so. It probably can form with multiple trees, like our native oregon Blacks- which are actually also found in France on hardwoods, and in N. africa on a small shrub! It’s crazy!

They kind of look like a reddish tinged perigord on the outside and have that bubbly interior like the Oregon Black Truffle. The two species are actually pretty closely related, and it is highly likely they are much wider spread and prolific than people think! They are commercially harvest on a small scale- but I have yet to ever see one- but I’ll make a request here momentarily to someone

I’m currently away from home so I don’t have access to all my resources for more info at present on flavor/ aroma profile, but good one for making me remember about these. If I recall correctly, they have notes of earthy potato, spicy sweet, and sometimes fruity. Kind of a mash of odors there, but hey, who knows!

[Alana McGee]

tuber canaliculatum on page 99 reads like another possibility for us.

For the Imaia species, I just thought it was funny that I was reading the North American guide and it specifically lists 2 states, not a general region,….And Japan

[Alana McGee]

Yup, and Tuber candidum and likely many others that are not as of yet classified or have names. This applies to you too where you are Alysssia.

[Alana McGee]

This applies to you too where you are Alyssia.

I have the ID book as well, went through it a bit, but really have no idea where to even begin looking or what to look for, so this helpful to know. Thanks.

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