A truffle is the fruiting body of a subterranean mushroom; spore dispersal is accomplished through fungivores, animals that eat fungi. Almost all truffles(not the chocolate kind) are ectomycorrhizal and are therefore usually found in close association with trees.

There are hundreds of species of truffles, but the fruiting body of some (mostly in the genus Tuber) are highly prized as a food: Brillat-Savarin called them "the diamond of the kitchen". Edible truffles are held in high esteem in French, Spanish, northern Italian and Greek cooking, as well as in international haute cuisine.

The origin of the word truffle appears to be the Latin term tuber, meaning "swelling" or "lump", which became tufer- and gave rise to the various European terms: French truffe, Spanish trufa, Danish Trøffel, German Trüffel, Swedish tryffel, Dutch truffel, Polish trufel, Serbian тартуф/tartuf and Croatian tartuf. In Portuguese, the words trufa and túbera are synonyms, the latter closer to the Latin term. The German word Kartoffel ("potato") is derived from the Italian tartufo (truffle) because of superficial similarities.

Paul E. Stamets (born July 17, 1955) is an American mycologist, author, and advocate of bioremediation and medicinal mushrooms.

Stamets is on the editorial board of The International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms, and is an advisor to the Program for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona Medical School, Tucson, Arizona. He is active in researching the medicinal properties of mushrooms, and is involved in two NIH-funded clinical studies on cancer and HIV treatments using mushrooms as adjunct therapies. Having filed numerous patents on the antiviral, pesticidal, and remediative properties of mushroom mycelia, his work has been called pioneering and visionary. A strong advocate of preserving biodiversity, Stamets supports research into the role of mushrooms for ecological restoration.

The author of numerous books and papers on the subject of mushroom identification and cultivation, Stamets has discovered four new species of mushrooms. He is an advocate of the permaculture system of growing, and considers fungiculture a valuable but underutilized aspect of permaculture. He is also a leading researcher into the use of mushrooms in bioremediation, processes he terms mycoremediation and mycofiltration.