Sacre bleu! Truffle grows on roof

PRIZED by the world’s top chefs and known as black diamonds for the astonishing prices they fetch, truffles are usually found buried in dank woods.

However, the specially trained dogs and pigs used to find the rare edible fungus among tree roots could be out of a job after a wild black truffle was found growing in the roof garden of a Paris hotel. The most sought-after ones, which can cost almost £9,000 a kilogram, are found in southern France, Italy and Spain.

But a ‘tuber brimale’ truffle, worth £85 a kilogram, has grown at the foot of a hornbeam on the Mercure Paris Centre Tour Eiffel Hotel.

The Museum of Natural History in Paris, whose ecological researcher Frederic Madre made the find, said: ‘The discovery of this wild truffle is a wonderful example of how roof gardens and green roofs have a huge potential for urban biodiversity.’