Everyone loves and has probably eaten delicious chocolate truffles, but their natural inspiration, truffles that grow on tree roots in the ground, are much less common.

One of the world's most expensive foods, ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars a pound, truffles are fungi or mushrooms that grow under ground, attached to the roots of various trees. Mostly found in Europe, truffles were originally located and dug up by truffle hunters who used pigs and their sense of smell. Trained truffle-hunting dogs find the treasures these days, because the pigs were hungry and often ate the delicacies before the hunters could dig them up and take them to market.