Characterization of Tuber macrosporum / Populus alba mycorrhizas from cultivated seedlings: case report

Abstract

The oldest data on hypogeous fungi from the territory of Serbia date back to the year of 1777, but first study on truffles and truffle-like fungi in Serbia started in 1992. Collected material, fruit bodies of Tuber species had been founded and identified and extensively studied during the last decade of the twentieth century. Despite the current interest in truffles in Serbia, there is not much information about artificially established truffle plantations. The register orchards of truffles in Serbia have not been created yet. Thus, the objective of this study was the morphological and anatomical characterization of an unknown ectomycorrhizas of host species Populus alba from cultivated seedlings from part of a ten-year-old truffles plantation. In autumn 2016, we were invited to visit and determine what kind of mycorrhizae is situated in the plantation near the town of Požarevac (Eastern Serbia). The truffle-ground (about 3,000 m2) is placed in Kličevac where a plantation was established during the autumn 2007. According to the owner, he bought commercially produced seedlings of Populus alba inoculated with the black truffle.