Unlike pigs, canines aren’t natural born truffle hunters. But nearly any dog can be taught to become one, from Great Danes to Chihuahuas! Dog trainers use all sorts of tricks to turn pups into truffle-philes, including playing fetch with balls that smell of truffles. For more on training dogs to love truffles, check out this step by step guide. And to catch a glimpse of the close relationships between master truffle hunters and their dogs, check out the 2020 documentary The Truffle Hunters.

Exactly why truffles need trees, or what truffles even are, was long a mystery. In the late 19th century, Albert Bernhard Frank, a German botanist, discovered that truffles and trees support one another. Special organs for exchanging nutrients and sugars form where the truffle’s mycelium meets tree roots. We now know that these organs, which Frank dubbed mycorrhizae, form on a great variety of plants in symbiosis with many different fungi beyond truffles. Check out this article in The Conversation to learn more about the importance of mycorrhizal fungi in natural plant communities and agriculture.