Summary:
Features include lobed, dingy white fruitbodies averaging 1.5cm across, the surface slightly scabrous, and microscopic characters including round-elliptic spores measuring 32-40 x 28-34 microns that are very minutely alveolate [pitted] with 12-16 x 11-14 alveoli across the diameter, asci that are 2-4-spored and nearly spherical, and a peridium 280-640 microns thick. The description is derived from Gilkey(3) except where noted. It is common in the Pacific Northwest, (Trappe(13)).

Microscopic:
spores 32-40 x 28-34 microns, round-elliptic, very minutely alveolate [reticulate-pitted] with 12-16 x 11-14 alveoli across diameter; asci 2-4-spored, nearly spherical; peridium 280-640 microns thick, "cortex minutely pseudoparenchymatous, the cells varying little in size, the walls not thickened, the pseudoparenchyma changing gradually to very loose, branched hyphae"

Notes:
Tuber monticola has been found from BC to northern CA and ID (Trappe(13)). It was described from CA. It was reported from OR by J. Smith et al., and from WA by Colgan(2).

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Hydnum aureum Fr.
Hydnum fasciculare Berk. & M.A. Curtis