Tuber rufum

A species typical of both broadleaf trees and conifers on calcareous soils, with globose to irregular ascomata, sometimes with a small basal cavity, 2 to 4 cm in diameter, finely warty reddish-brown surface, a light brown gleba with profusely branched whitish veins, an intense odor, and a faint nutty flavor.

Peridium composed of filamentous, cylindrical, hyaline, septate, moderately thick-walled hyphae, interwoven (textura intricata), which in the outer part tend to acquire more globose shapes with reddish-brown pigment inside.

Asci subglobose to pyriform, pedicellate, 60 to 80 µm long, 45 to 65 µm wide, and usually containing 2 to 4 spores inside.

Ascospores ellipsoid, with spines 2 to 5 µm high, pale yellow under the microscope, 20 to 35 µm long excluding ornamentation, 13 to 20 µm wide, ornamented with abundant isolated spines regularly arranged across the entire surface.