Charity money could soon grow on trees

Each specimen has been inoculated with the spores of the summer truffle (tuber aestivum) and could be producing the sought-after fungi within a few years.

The trees were given to the city at the Lord Mayor's charity dinner earlier this year, and it was decided that they should be planted in the award-winning gardens in Clarkehouse Road.

Dr Paul Thomas, who runs a company specialising in truffle cultivation in the Peak District's Hope Valley, donated the inoculated hazels and helped with the planting work yesterday.

He was joined by Sheffield councillor Ray Satur, who said a share of any profits from the crop would go to the upkeep of the gardens, with the rest to the Lord Mayor's charity.

The trees were planted in the newly-restored Woodland Garden close to the Thompson Road entrance. They will be tended by the Friends of the Botanical Gardens group.

Its spokesman Meg Jullien said: "It will be a long-term project though, because it is likely to take between four and seven years before any truffles appear, but it is hoped that when they do grow, they will find a ready market locally."

Truffles are more commonly associated with Continental Europe than South Yorkshire. One found in Pisa in Italy weighed 1.5kg (3.3lbs) and was sold for a massive 165,000.