Terfeziaceae  The Terfeziaceae, or desert truffles, is a family of truffles (Berber: Tirfas, Arabic: كمء "Kam'") endemic to arid and semi-arid areas of the Mediterranean Region, North Africa, and the Middle East, where they live in ectomycorrhizal association with "Helianthemum" species and other ectomycorrhizal plants (including "Cistus", oaks, and pines). This group consists of three genera: "Terfezia", "Tirmania", and "Mattirolomyces". They are a few centimetres across and weigh from 30 to 300 grams (1–10 oz). Desert truffles are often used as a culinary ingredient. Fruit-bodies (ascomata) are large, more or less spherical to turbinate (like a top), thick-walled, and solid. The asci are formed in marbled veins interspersed with sterile tissue. The asci are cylindrical to spherical, indehiscent (not splitting open at maturity), and sometimes stain blue in iodine. Ascospores are hyaline to pale brown, spherical, and uninucleate. Desert truffles, as the name suggests, predominantly grow in the desert. They have been found in arid and semi-arid zones of the Kalahari desert, the Mediterranean basin, Turkey, Syria, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, the Negev desert in Israel, the Sahara, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Libya, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Hungary, Croatia, and China. They can be formed near Sunrose plants, but they are very rare to find and can't be cultivated (thus justifying their cost). Desert truffles do not have the same flavor as European truffles, but tend to be more common and thus more affordable. Forest truffles (genus "Tuber") typically cost $1000 per kilogram, and Italian truffles may sell for up to $2,200 per kilogram, while "Terfezia" truffles sold as of 2002 in Riyadh for $80 to $105 a kilo, and in recent years have reached, but not yet exceeded, $270. Israeli agricultural scientists have been attempting to domesticate "Terfezia boudieri" into a commercial crop. Desert truffles go by several different names.