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A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 2 May 2017

5 new truffle species identified in New Hampshire

HOLLY RAMER cific truffles have been
Associated Press named E. remickii, after
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) UNH student Tyler Remick,
— They aren’t the type who helped collect the
you’d sprinkle over pasta, truffles, and E. bartlet-
but five truffle species re- tii, after Josiah Bartlett, a
cently identified by Uni- signer of the Declaration
versity of New Hampshire of Independence and
researchers could con- the first governor of New
tain important informa- Hampshire.
tion about the health of Researchers have named
New England forests. a third — E. oreoides —
While other types of so- because when cut it in
called deer truffles have half, it has a dark-light-
been found across Eu- dark pattern similar to an
rope and the western Oreo cookie and has a
United States, the par- sweet odor.
ticular species doctoral “They all kind of have
student Ryan Stephens their own unique aroma,
found in the White Moun- but it’s not something I’d
tain National Forest have want to eat,” Stephens
never been formally iden- said.
tified and named. Two of Finding such a large num-
the five have only been ber of species in such a
found in New Hampshire, small area is exciting be-
Stephens said. cause New England isn’t
More specifically, the truf- known for truffle diversity,
fles were found in Bartlett Castellano said.
Experimental Forest, one This 2014 photo provided by the University of New Hampshire shows E. barletti, a species of truffle “Because truffles fruit un-
of the most well-studied discovered by researchers with the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station. derground, everybody
forests in New England, Associated Press walks on them but they
he said. “So to discover a don’t even know that
number of new species is to new locations via spores benefit from knowledge they’re there,” Castellano
exciting, and just goes to derground fungi, which dispersed in the wind, truf- about what was there be- said.
show how much we still many trees depend upon fles require animals to dig fore, he said. “They’re hidden treasures
have to learn.” for growth. But unlike mush- them up, eat them and dis- “They’re not important for in our forests, so it’s excit-
Truffles are the fruit of un- rooms, which can spread perse their spores via scat. the culinary aspect, unless ing to see work like Ryan
That makes them harder to you happen to be a rodent has done to discover
study, but their symbiotic or mammal that hangs out some of those treasures
relationship with tree roots in the forest, but they’re right here in our own
make them a key compo- very important to the eco- backyard.”
nent to forest health, said system,” he said. “Trees An article detailing the
Michael Castellano of the couldn’t survive without findings written by Castel-
U.S. Forest Service, who has mycorrhizal fungi in their lano and Stephens was
studied truffles around the root systems. So they’re published in March in IMA
world. For example, efforts very important for forest Fungus, the journal of the
to restore a forest after a health.” International Mycological
fire or clearcutting would The New Hampshire-spe- Association.q