The Romans called it simply "tuber" which in Latin means a swelling, wart. Aristotle and other ancient writers including Pythagoras retained that it possessed aphrodisiac properties. Plutarch was convinced that it was formed after storms with the aid of thunder and lightning, that it derived from strange wandering roots detached from the mother plants or was produced by fermentation of the soil. The name "terrae tuffolae" which was contracted into "tartuffole" and later "tartufo" was first used toward the 12th century. In 1788, in his degree thesis in medicine in Turin, Pico when discussing fungi first referred to the white truffle as "tuber magnatum".

The truffle grows only in very special conditions; it shuns dryness and requires certain salts; it prefers clayey-calcareous soil containing silica, like those of the Monferrato and Alba areas.

Truffles develop in symbiosis with many types of trees :oak, poplar, lime and willow. The trees under which the truffle forms may be decisive in determining its fineness and intensity of odour. The most highly-prized is the oak truffle; this is fairly dark and warty, has a higher specific weight and grows well in compact ground; truffles that grow under poplars are rounder and whiter and grow in loose, light soil.