Geopora cooperi

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Geopora cooperi, commonly known as the pine truffle or fuzzy truffle, is a fungus in the Pyronemataceae family. It grows underground and has a fuzzy brown outer surface with a pale, folded interior tissue.

Key facts
- Ecology: mycorrhizal, forming a partnership with tree roots (especially conifers and eucalyptus).
- Edibility: edible and considered good by some foragers.
- Appearance: fruit bodies are 2–8 cm wide, brown on the outside with a fuzzy texture; the inside (gleba) is whitish and deeply folded. Young specimens may exude a whitish juice when cut. Some forms in the Western United States smell like fermented cider.
- Spores and reproduction: spores are about 18–27 by 13–21 micrometers, with eight spores per ascus.
- Growth: fruit bodies grow underground, singly or in groups, and can push up small soil mounds as they mature.
- Habitat: found near conifers and Eucalyptus trees; occurs underground and is sometimes detectable by the soil mounds it leaves.
- Distribution: widely in the Northern Hemisphere, from Mexico to Alaska in western North America; also recorded in China, western Asia (including Turkey), Pakistan, and Europe. In Turkey it is considered critically endangered.
- Seasonal note: known as a snowbank mushroom, often appearing after snow has melted.
- Name origin: named after J. D. Cooper; first described by Harkness in 1885.