Serena Kirby, Denmark Bulletin

Research progress, technology advancements and opportunities to support a new truffle species which can be harvested in winter, spring and summer seasons was outlined last week.

Academics, farmers, industry partners and representatives converged on the McHenry farm at Mt Lindesay recently to hear about these advancements in truffle cultivation.

Local research initiative Silverplace which is collaborating with Murdoch University, Universita de Bologna Italy and Future Food Systems Cooperative Research Centre to expand the Australian truffle industry organised the day.

Physicist and local farmer Mark McHenry, along with academic colleagues, have spent three years trialling the growth of two new species of cross-seasonal truffle on several different species of host trees.

Mark said the project’s challenge was to extend the availability and variety of Australian-grown truffles by inoculating suitable host trees.

“It’s truly amazing what we can now test and discover and this project has been hugely successful as we never expected we’d have come this far so quickly,” Mark said.

Using Environmental DNA (eDNA) and what is known as shotgun sequencing, researchers can test tree roots, truffle and spore samples and extract its DNA using supercomputers and AI to gain high-resolution biological data.

Two particular truffle species across eight species of oak trees and two pine tree species are being tested in the project.

The expected research results will be an extended truffle season and a reduction in the risk associated with growing a single truffle species.

The project also has potential to expand the truffle industry in a well-managed and sustainable manner.

“All this work finally gives farmers what they’ve wanted for centuries: an understanding of the diversity of truffles and other fungal biology underground to reliably produce truffles on a diversity of trees,” Mark said.

This article appeared in Denmark Bulletin, 21 August 2025.