Parasol mushroom has a very interesting look: while it is still not fully grown it resembles to drum mallets and is therefore called by Italians maza da tamburo. When it is fully developed and grown it resembles a parasol and our Adriatic neighbours call it also parasole. Slovenians find that it resembles a large umbrella - and therefore call it orijaški dežnik - in Germany it is called Parasolpilz or Riesenschirmling, the Czechs call it bedl’a vysoká, and the French use several names for it: coulemelle, St. Michel, parasol, nez de chat and other. From numerous above mentioned names we can conclude that the parasol mushroom is a generally known and widespread mushroom sort.
With reference to the way of nourishment and life the parasol mushroom belongs to saprophytes since it uses dead organic matter for its development. This means that it finds nourishment in fell off leaves, needle-shaped leaves and decomposed remains of trees in deciduous, evergreen and mixed forests and groves as well as at outskirts of forests but can also grow on meadows and pastures tens of meters away from forest outskirts. In Croatia it is a very common and generally known mushroom sort and mushroom fans pick it with pleasure.
Thousands sorts of mushrooms live only in symbiosis with various other plants (the so called mycorrhiza, from the Greek mykes - mushroom and rhiza - root). Into that huge group of symbiotes fall also all kinds of truffles. This underground mushrooms form ectomycorrhiza with the plant’s root, they wind around primary roots of plants and create the mycoclena or the mantle. With this type of mycorrhiza mycelium enters intracellular spaces of plant’s roots and creates Hartig net which establishes a direct mutual connection with the plant.
White truffle grows in symbiosis with many sorts of plants: oak, lime-tree, poplar, willow and hazel, while black truffle lives in symbiosis with downy oak, European hop-hornbeam, hazel and various kinds of pine-trees. Apart from symbiosis, for successful growth of truffles very important is the quality of soil. As concerns soil acidity, white truffle and black truffle need alkaline soils (pH 7.5 - 8.4). The soil also must contain high quantity of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), an adequate ratio of carbon and nitrogen (C/N) and low percentage of organic matter - which are all important factors for truffle growth.
In Croatia white truffle grows along all flows of rivers (Mirna, Raša, Pazinčica, Zrmanja, Cetina, Neretva, Sava, Una, Kupa, and Bosut). It also grows in Italy, Rumania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia and Albania. Black truffle needs for its growth sandy pebble soil and according to available data grows in Spain, France, Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Albania.
