- Scientific Name:
- Tuber melanosporum Vittadini.
- Where:
- Umbria, Abruzzo, Marche, Toscana, Lazio, Campania.
- When:
- December to March.
- Features:
- A true delicacy, one of the most renowned black truffles in the world also known as "sweet black truffle".
- Color:
- The surface of the fruiting body is covered by pyramid-shaped warts. The peridium (outside) is a dark almost black color, rust-colored or reddish-burgundy when unripe. The gleba (inside) is characterized by a dark, purplish-black flesh with thin intricate whitish veining.
- Aroma:
- Intense with pleasant aromatic fruity notes.
- Flavor:
- Strong but not pungent.
- Habitat:
- It grows in hilly or mountainous areas on well drained soils rich in limestone in symbiosis with oak, holm oak, hornbeam, hazel and olive trees.
- Extra:
- Named after the Italian botanist Carlo Vittadini (1800-1865) who composed the first encyclopedic book dedicated to the classification and cataloging of truffles "Monographia Tuberacearum".
