Family
Tuberaceae
Tuber gibbosum. Photo: (c) 2001 California Academy of Sciences, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)
The Tuberaceae /tjuːbəˈreɪsiː/ are a family of mycorrhizal fungi. It includes the genus Tuber, which includes the so-called “true” truffles. It was characterized by the Belgian botanist Barthélemy Charles Joseph du Mortier in 1822. A molecular study of ribosomal DNA by mycologist Kerry O’Donnell in 1997 found that a small clade now redefined as Helvellaceae is most closely related to the Tuberaceae.