Wild truffle found in Paris rooftop garden

Paris has been trying to increase urban farming for some time. Now it’s probably about to get an enormous boost in rooftop gardens after news broke that a rare black truffle had been found growing wild on top of a Paris hotel, and now everybody is hoping there could be more.

Truffles normally grow further south than Paris, but according to the BBC, a black winter truffle weighing a little less than an ounce was recently found growing at the base of a hornbeam tree in a rooftop garden in Paris.

The garden belonged to the Mercure Paris Hotel near the Eiffel Tower, and Paris gardeners and mushroom experts were shocked to hear that a truffle was just growing there. According to the BBC, nobody has ever found a wild truffle growing in Paris before.

The hotel is certainly hoping to find and cultivate more truffles in the future, but it donated this one to the Museum of Natural History, where experts say they were tempted to taste it before getting down to the business of figuring out how a truffle turned up in Paris. Mushroom expert Marc-Andre Selosse said it was remarkable, and that if one truffle was growing on a Paris rooftop, there could be more.

“This shows that it could happen again and that it might be possible to cultivate truffles on Paris roofs,” he said.

Black winter truffles are not nearly as expensive as white truffles, but they are still quite pricey. This year prices are reportedly up to more than $2,700 per pound. For anyone keeping an eye out for more unexpected wild truffles, here’s a guide to mushroom varieties.

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