** \[up: [[Fungi]] – [[Mushrooms]] ]** --- # Truffles > “Truffles are the underground fruiting bodies of several types of [[mycorrhizal fungi|mycorrhizal fungi]]. For most of the year, truffle fungi exist as mycelial networks, sustained in part by the nutrients they obtain from the soil and also by the sugars they draw from plant roots.”[^1] > “However, their subterranean habitat confronts them with a basic problem. Truffles are spore-producing organs \[…] but underground their spores can’t be caught by air currents, and are invisible to the eyes of animals. Their solution is to smell.”[^2] [[Truffles “produce aromas that have made them among the most expensive foods in the world.”]][^3] [[“Truffles with better ‘chemistry’ will attract animals more successfully than those with worse.”|“Truffles with better ‘chemistry’ will attract animals more successfully than those with worse. Like the orchids that mimic the appearance of sexually receptive female bees, truffles provide a depiction of animal tastes — an evolutionary portrait-in-scent of animal fascination.”]][^4] [[“In human history, truffles have long been associated with sex. The word for truffle in many languages translates to ‘testicle’, as in the old Castilian turmas de tierra, or Earth’s testicles.”]][^5] [[“Truffle fungi have evolved to make animals giddy because their lives depend on it.”]][^6] [[“A truffle’s odour increases as its spores develop, and its aroma ceases when its cells die. ... They are chemically loquacious, vociferous even. Stop the metabolism, and you stop the smell.”]][^7] --- ## White-truffles [[“White-truffle hunters are famously secretive. These fungi have never been domesticated and can only be found in the wild.”]][^8] [^1]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 27. [^2]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), pp. 27–28. [^3]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 7. [^4]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 28. [^5]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 31. [^6]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 31. [^7]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 36. [^8]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 27.