A new species of truffle discovered in Western Australia, belonging to a whole new genus, has excited fungi experts the world over - but the specimens are so rare, no-one has dared to taste one.

The Amarrendia oleosa truffle was found in a rejuvenating forest on a former bauxite mine near Perth by Dr Neale Bougher, a senior research scientist with CSIRO Forestry & Forest Products, a specialist division of the Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation.

"These fungi are extremely important in ecosystems," said Bougher, who specialises in mycology, the study of fungi. "They have hidden processes that support decomposition and bring nutrients back into the soil."

Truffles are underground mushrooms. The Amarrendia truffles are white and about the size of marbles, although some specimens are the size of an egg. They are the only known truffle genus related to the fairy toadstool family.

The discovery was made about a year ago, and since then Bougher, working with Dr Teresa Lebel of Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens, has had the finding published in the journal Australian Systematic Botany late last year.

No-one knows if the truffles are edible, because the few specimens found have all been placed in scientific collections. CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products has one of the largest collections of fungi in the country, with over 12,000 specimens in its fungal herbarium.

Scientists have long suspected there was a genus related to the fairy toadstool family, and it has now turned up in Australia, where truffles are relatively unstudied. "We don't even realise what we have got," he told ABC Science Online.

To date, 90 species have been found in Australia, and according to Bougher this is only between 10 and 20 per cent of the estimated total number. By comparison, there are 50 known truffle species in Europe.

While no-one has tasted the newly discovered truffles, they do have a smell, he said. It is part of their survival system - truffles rely on animals to sniff them out, eat them and pass their spores in dung.

In Europe, pigs are used to sniff out edible truffles, and the fledgling truffle industry in Tasmania uses dogs. But in mainland Australia, some of the native truffle species have co-evolved with the country's unique fauna; marsupials like potoroos and woylies eat truffles and disperse their spores.

The researchers have been able to follow the trail of the marsupials to find truffles, looking for their diggings and droppings. "Its one indicator of their presence," Bougher said. "But you need a very trained eye."

The bauxite mine was originally a Jarrah forest, and the company that mined it has a charter to return the forest to it original condition. "We have believed for a long time that its not really good enough to just put back the plants. We also need to re-establish the soil system that supports the trees," he said.

To help this process, the topsoil was removed before mining began and stored, to be placed back on to the site once mining was finished.

Bougher has been working at the site over several years, studying at plots and collecting all the fungi to compare it with the soil in the adjacent native forest. "Truffles have the capacity to form partnerships that act almost like an extra root system and ferry nutrients back into plants," he said.

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