Edible mycorrhizal fungi (EMF) include truffles (Périgord black truffle, Italian white truffle etc.) and other highly prized forest mushrooms (porcini, chanterelles, matsutake etc.). Most edible EMF truffle species belong to Ascomycota, while EMF mushrooms belong to Basidiomycota. They are abundant in boreal and temperate forests, where they live in ectomycorrhizal symbiosis with trees, colonizing their roots and transforming them into well-defined ectomycorrhizae, mixed organs where fungal and plant tissues are merged. EMF are, however, also present in dry and desert areas, e.g. the Mediterranean Basin, where the so-called 'desert truffles' engage in a polyvalent mycorrhizal relationship with Cistaceae Juss. of the genus Helianthemum Mill. (Morte, Gutiérrez, & Navarro Ródenas, 2020). Mycorrhizae enable both partners to live together and exchange mutual services (Smith & Read, 2008). The fungus supplies the tree with water and nutrients that its extensive mycelium, made of microscopic hyphae, pumps or mobilizes from the soil. In exchange, the tree, or shrub, reallocates photosynthates to its fungal symbiont, which in most cases, are otherwise inaccessible to EMF, given their inability to decompose carbohydrate polymers such as starch, cellulose or lignin. From a practical point of view, this symbiotic relationship leads to (1) fast-growing and resilient mycorrhizal host trees (