Our Shop

Truffle Finds

This page gives some information on the history of summer truffle in the United Kingdom.

Listed below are some of the 'finds' registered at Royal Botannical Gardens,Kew and the Association of British Fungal Groups. People who find truffle are generally reluctant to have their 'finds' recorded – thus this list will be far from exhaustive! Truffle UK is very keen to maintain and up-date this list - with all information being shared with Kew.

Those who find truffle are asked to take a thin slice from their sample(s), drying them overnight on a piece of tissue/kitchen roll and then send them to Truffle UK in an envelope. The envelope should be marked with the date, site (not mandatory) and host tree species (if known). This sample will be examined under a microscope and its identity recorded. Our two most common truffle of value and culinary use are:

Tuber aestivum (var uncinatum), the English truffle is roundish in shaped covered with coarse polygonal warts, black in colour outside and brownish and veined with white within; its average size is about that of a small apple. It grows from July till autumn or winter; and prefers beech, oak and birch woods on argillaceous or calcareous soil and has sometimes been observed in pine woods. It grows gregariously, often in company with Tuber brumale and in France and Italy.

Tuber brumale referred to above, grown in Britain. It is a winter truffle and is found chiefly under oaks and abele trees from October to December. It is black in colour, globose, more or less regular in shape and is covered with sharp polygonal warts: the mature flesh is blackish grey marbled with white veins. The odour is very strong and lasts a long time: the taste is generally esteemed agreeable.

1800s
Date	Type	Description
18XX	Tuber aestivum	Alt(m): 90, Herefordshire
1841/03		Audley End, Essex
1845/10		Salisbury
1847	Tuber aestivum	North Wiltshire
1847/09/10		Bowood Wiltshire
1847/09/10		Bowood Wiltshire
1847/10		Holotype of T.bituminatum, unlocalised
1847/10/01		In deep sand, Bowood, Wiltshire
1847/11/11		Under Fagus, Rushmore Estate, Cranbourne Chase, Dorset
1865/10/24		Under fagus & Acer pseudoplatanus, Folkington
1873	Tuber aestivum	Herefordshire
1873	Tuber aestivum	Shropshire
1881/12		Stourhead, Somerset
1873/10		Under Quercus ilex, Spetchley Park, Hereford
1888	Tuber aestivum	Under Fagus sylvatica, beech woodland, Mid-West Yorkshire
1900s
Date	Type	Description
19XX	Tuber aestivum	Under Fagus sylvatica, root, Oxfordshire
19XX	Tuber aestivum	Blenheim Park, Oxfordshire
19XX	Tuber aestivum	Under Fagus, ground, Oxfordshire
19XX	Tuber aestivum	Under Fagus, ground, Sussex
		Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire
		Under Fagus, Queen Elizabeth Country Park, Petersfield, Hampshire
		Unlocalised
		Under Fagus, Vaynol Park, Bangor, Gwynedd
		Worcester
		Nibley 2 nd Wood, Wootton under Edge
		Under Fagus, Orchardleigh Park, Frome, Somerset
		Shoreham on Sea
		Under Quercus ilex, Seacourt, Dover, Kent
		Chichester
		Under Fagus, Folly Wood, Dursley, Gloucestershire
		Under Fagus, Folly Wood, Dursley, Gloucestershire
		Bowood, Wiltshire
	Tuber aestivum	Vaynol Park, Caernarvonshire, Wales
		Under Fagus, Chatsworth, Derby
		Herefordshire, Herford & Worcester
		Under Fagus, Ilex, Quercus ilex, Banner Downs, Batheaston, Somerset
		As var. bituminosum, under Betula, Bath, Somerset
		Brighton
		Under Fagus, Folly Wood, Dursley, Gloucestershire
		Covent Garden, London
		Chinnor Hill Reserve, Oxford
		Rathurles, Nr Nenagh, Tipperary
		Clifton Reynes, Olney
		Castle Howard, North Yorkshire
		Under Fagus, Greystoke Castle
		Under Fagus, Folly Wood, Dursley, Gloucestershire
	Tuber aestivum	Phillis Wood, West Sussex
	Tuber aestivum	Norbury Park, Surrey
	Tuber aestivum	Chinnor Hill, Oxfordshire
	Tuber aestivum	Under Fagus sylvatica, litter, leaf
		Nr Sarrat, Hertfordshire
		Audley End, Essex
	Tuber aestivum	Under Carpinus betulus, soil, compost, old, woodland, Mid-West Yorkshire
		Headingly, Leeds
		Howe Combe, Watlington
	Tuber aestivum	Alt(m): 90, On/with Corylus avellana, soil, broad-leaved plantation, disturbed by squirrels in cob nut orchard, thought to be in RBG Kew, J Pitt was contacted by Mrs Howell, Kent
		With Quercus, Four Forks, Bridgewater, Somerset
	Tuber aestivum	Under Corylus avellana (as hazel), Orpington, Kent
		Under fir & Betula, Ashtead, Surrey
		Under Fagus, Greystoke, Penryth, Cumbria
	Tuber aestivum	Under Fagus, soil (hypogeous), beechwoods on chalk soil, Surrey
	Tuber aestivum	Under Capsella bursa-paastoris, North-East Yorkshire
	Tuber aestivum	Castle Howard, Yorkshire
		Under Carpinus, Crataegus, Ilex, Leeds
	Tuber aestivum	Warwickshire
		Folly Wood, Dursely, Stroud, Gloucestershire
	Tuber aestivum	Stinchcombe Woods, Gloucestershire
1985/08/17	Tuber aestivum	Dursely, Gloucestershire
1985/08/18	Tuber aestivum	Twinbarrow Woods, Wootton under Edge, Gloucestershire
1985/08/19		Under Beech & Sycamore, Folkington, Sussex
1985/08/19		Goring on Sea
1985/10/02		Under Beech avenue, Rushmore Estate, Cranborne, Dorset
1985/10/04		With Fagus, unlocalised
1985/10/06		Under Fagus, between Arundel & Patching, Sussex
1985/10/08		Audley End,Essex
1985/10/13		Under Beech, 1 Harrington Road, Dorchester, Dorset
1985/10/14		Under Fagus, Ilex, Quercus ilex, Banner Downs, Batheaston, Avon
1985/10/20		Under Ilex, Longniddy
1985/10/21		Under Carpinus Betulus, Leeds University Experimental Garden, Headingley, Leeds
1985/10/2		Under Quercus ilex, St Boniface, Ventnor, Isle of Wight
1985/10/21		In hedge under Ilex, Crataegus, Acer pseudoplatanus, Nr Leeds
1986/10/13		Under Holm Oak, Seacourt, St Margarets, Dover, Kent
1986/10/13		Sevenoaks
1987/01/05		Unlocalised
1988/07/14		Under betula, Ashtead, Surrey
1988/07/14		Chipstead Valley, Banstead
1989	Tuber aestivum	Under Quercus ilex, soil, under quercus ilex, down steep faci, Hampshire
1989/06/12		Bedales, Petersfield, Hampshire
1993	Tuber aestivum	Under Fagus sylvatica, soil, woodland broadleaf, West Gloucestershire
1995	Tuber aestivum	Under Betula, soil among roots, garden, Surrey
1995/06/09		Under Betula, Surrey
1996	Tuber aestivum	Under Quercus, South Hampshire
1997	Tuber aestivum	Alt(m): 150, On/with Fagus sylvatica, soil grassy, domestic, built up, North Wiltshire
1997	Tuber aestivum	Alt(m): 200, on/with Fagus sylvatica, soil grassy, domestic, built up, West Gloucestershire
1998	Tuber aestivum	Under Fagus (as Fagus / Betula), soil, garden lawn, North Somerset
1998	Tuber aestivum	Under Fagus, chalk soil, garden, Kent
1998	Tuber aestivum	Soil, Hertfordshire
1998		Under Quercus, leaf litter, broad-leaved semi-natural woodland, found inmixed Quercus, Fagus, Acer and Corylus woodland, Hampshire
1998/02/23		Under Fagus, High Bannerdown, Batheaston, Somerset
1998/06/31		Under beech, Kingston, Canterbury, Kent
1998/11		Nr Flaunden, Hertfordshire
1999	Tuber aestivum	Soil, woodland garden, Wiltshire
1999	Tuber aestivum	Under Fagus sylvatica, soil (under trees), woodland, beechwood on calcareous s, North Wiltshire
1999/05		Under Fagus, Chippenham, Wiltshire
1999/10		Under Fagus Sylvatica, Devizes, North Wiltshire
1999/05		Under Fagus, Chippenham, Wiltshire
1999/10		Under Fagus Sylvatica, Devizes, North Wiltshire
2000s
Date	Type	Description
2000	Tuber aestivum	Under Ilex, in bare soil, garden, on chalk, Kent
2000/10/02		Walmer, Deal, Kent
2000	Tuber aestivum	Alt(m): 22, On/with Fagus sylvatica, soil, garden, found on surface of soil having been dug up by squirrel in Peter Smith's garden, Nottinghamshire
2002	Tuber aestivum	Under Quercus, soil, Hertfordshire
2002/07/10		Under Oak, Sherrards Park Wood, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire
2003/08/21		Under Carpinus Betula, Meldreth, Cambridgeshire
2004/07		Under beech/hornbeam, Bedfordshire
09/2004		Under Beech, Little Bedwyn, Wiltshire
05/2005		Under Quercus Ilex, Weston Super Mare, Somerset