Use of a Truffle Dog Provides Insight Into the Ecology and Abundant Occurrence of Genea (Pyronemataceae) in Western Oregon, USA

Hypogeous fungi (“truffles”) are challenging to study because they produce underground sporocarps that may not be located during traditional fungal surveys. Commercially valuable truffles are located using scent-detection dogs trained on truffles. However, the dogs are not necessarily limited to commercial truffle species when trained on other taxa of interest. For example, Genea (Pyronemataceae, Ascomycota) is a genus of common but difficult to find truffles that develops small and often soil-colored hypogeous ascomata. We used a truffle dog trained to locate Genea sporocarps in the southern Willamette Valley and associated mountains in western Oregon, USA, recording when the sporocarps were present at a wide range of elevations (113 to 1879 m). We found Genea was present in half of our surveys and noted that it rarely fruited in areas that had experienced wildfire. This study demonstrates the value of using truffle dogs in documenting truffle diversity, particularly those that are difficult to locate visually, and provides further evidence for the abundance of Genea.