Chinese Truffle

choi

Sophie Pither, How Truffles Went from Pig Food to Treasure in Yunnan, China; China’s hunger for luxury foods has led to demand for home-grown fungi and a new opportunity for farmers. Sunday Guardian, Feb 7, 2016.
http://www.theguardian.com/trave ... hina-black-truffles

Note:
(a) "These are the naturally occurring black tuber indicum truffles, less pungent and costly than the French tuber melanosporum. They fetch about £100 a kilo (the French Perigord variety go for more than £1,000)."
(i) The genus of truffle is Tuber. The Latin noun neuter tuber means "a swelling" in English.
(ii) The first letter of genus should be capitalized. So this report is incorrect with regard to "tuber indicum" and "tuber melanosporum."
(iii) Tuber melanosporum is colloquially "black truffle" or "black Périgord truffle."  The latter "is named after the Périgord region in France." Truffle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truffle
(section 4.3 Black truffle; section 9 Culinary use)

This Wiki page does not mention Tuber indicum.  

This same Wiki page also states, "A truffle is the fruiting body of a subterranean * * * fungus * * * Spore dispersal is accomplished through fungivores, animals that eat fungi. * * * The female pig's natural truffle-seeking, as well as her usual intent to eat the truffle, is due to a compound within the truffle similar to androstenol, the sex pheromone of boar saliva, to which the sow is keenly attracted.  In Italy, the use of the pig to hunt truffles has been prohibited since 1985 because of damage caused by animals to truffle's mycelia during the digging that dropped the production rate of the area for some years."  For the explanation, see (b)(ii).
(iv) Périgord
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Périgord
(a region in France; Périgord surrounds and is named after the préfecture (capital) of the [department] Dordogne, Périgueux)
(v) Périgord
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/P%C3%A9rigord
(pronunciation)

(b) truffle
(i) Benucci GMN et al, Chap 15 Truffles, Timber, Food, and Fuel: Sustainable Approaches for Multi-cropping Truffles and Economically Important Plants. In Alessandra Zambonelli and ‎Gregory M Bonito eds), Edible Ectomycorrhizal Mushrooms: Current knowledge and and future prospects. Springer, 2012, at page 266
https://books.google.com/books?i ... habitat&f=false
("The market price for truffles varies, depending on species, geographic origin, size, quality, and the quantity harvested during the season. The European white truffle (T magnatum) is the most expensive truffle species (up [to] the price of 5,000 €/Kg). In contrast, the Chinese truffle Tuber indicum Cooke & Massee is quite inexpensive (about 10-50 €/Kg). Italy currently prohibits the trade and sale of T indicum, because of concerns regarding its introduction into European ecosystems and potential for genetic introgression with the native economically important sister species Tuber melanosporum Vittad. (Murat et al 2008). In 2006, annual revenues based on marketed European truffle species, ie, T magnatum, T melanosporum, Tuber borchii Vittad, Tuber aestivum Vittad, and Tuber brumale Vittad, were estimated at over 1/4 billion US dollars (Splivallo 2006)")

* For explanation of a surname following the species name, see binomial nomenclature
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binomial_nomenclature
("Patella vulgata Linnaeus, 1758." The name "Linnaeus" tells the reader who it was that first published a description and name for this species of sea snail")
(ii) Frequently Asked Truffle Questions. North American Truffling Society (NATS), undated.
www.natruffling.org/faq.htm
(A) Please read Q&As for the following questions:
* What are truffles?  (A: "Truffles are hypogeous (underground) versions of mushrooms. They don't form a prominent stem and their spore-bearing surfaces are enclosed [unlike the above-ground mushroom whose cap opens to disperse spores on the underside].")
* What is mycophagy?
* What is mycorrhizae?
* Are any truffles poisonous?
* Truffle maturity and the market
* Which truffles are the gourmet edibles?  (About "Chinese truffles" (all three species "found in southwest China," including Tuber indicum.)
* How are truffles cooked?
(B) English dictionary:
* mycorrhiza (n; New Latin, from [Ancient Greek, according to en.wiktionary.com] myc- [fungus] + Greek rhiza root)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mycorrhiza
* scat (n; Greek skat- excrement): "an animal fecal dropping"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scat
(C) indicum (n): "genitive plural of index"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/indicum

genitive (adj, n) = possessive 所有格