Estimated value
$20–120/lb fresh
Grade #1 buttons with intact veil can hit $40–120/lb at the buying station. Open, dirty, or wormy drops fast. Japan import specs are strict.
culinary · choice
American Matsutake
Tricholoma murrillianum
Also called Pine mushroom, Tanoak matsutake
Field marks
- Spore print
- White
- Smell
- Cinnamon candy + earthy musk
- Trees / hosts
- Tanoak, Pine, Hemlock, Fir
- Elevation
- Coastal lowlands to mid-montane ridges.
Description
White to cinnamon-stained robust mushroom often buried in duff. Spicy cinnamon-red-hots + gym-sock aroma is the field tell. Gills are white, attached, and do not bruise blue. Stem has a cottony ring zone and a dirty, tapered rooting base.
Where it grows
Sandy or well-drained conifer / tanoak woods.
How to find it
Hunt tanoak, pine, and hemlock duff after the first hard fall rains. Look for humps ('mushrumps') in the needles — they fruit underground. Poke gently; do not rake.
How to pick
A wooden stick to lift duff, then a twist. Re-cover the hole. Grade on the spot: veil intact = #1. Never wash; brush only.
Medicinal notes
Prized culinary, cultural food in Japan and Korea. Not a clinical medicinal.
Psychoactive / controlled
None.
Law
Legal with permits. Many PNW forests tightly regulate commercial matsutake. Some First Nations territories restrict harvest — ask.
Lookalikes
- Destroying angel (Amanita)
Pure white, free gills, cup (volva) at the base. Dig the base. Amanitas kill.
Catathelasma / other white trichs
Wrong smell. If it does not smell like spicy gym socks, leave it.
Field ID ticket
Tick every required mark in the woods. 0/4 required. This still is not laboratory certainty.
Do not eat or sell this specimen. Missing required marks.