Lodgepole Pine Pinus contorta

Lodgepole pine grows from coastal bluffs to high mountain ridges. Shore pine (subspecies contorta) is the coastal form; inland lodgepole (subspecies latifolia) grows in the interior mountains, including the east side of the Cascades. Shore pine is short and wind-shaped near the coast, while inland lodgepole grows tall and straight in dense stands.

Needles come in pairs, twisted, ranging from yellow-green to dark green. Bark is brown to gray and breaks into small, scaly, irregular plates. Many lodgepole populations, especially inland, have serotinous cones sealed with pitch that open with the heat of fire, releasing seed onto burned ground; coastal shore pine is mostly non-serotinous. Lodgepole is a fire-dependent pioneer that regrows quickly after a burn.

Inland lodgepole forests are shaped by fire. Dense, even-aged stands grow back after a burn, then thin over decades from competition and mountain pine beetle. Burn morels fruit in spring in burned conifer forest, and lodgepole stands are among the forests that burn. The morels are not partners of lodgepole or any other tree; they follow the fire, not the species.

Lodgepole pine is ectomycorrhizal. Suillus (slippery jacks) are boletes that each partner with a particular group of conifers; S. tomentosus, S. brevipes and S. pseudobrevipes grow with two-needle pines such as lodgepole and shore pine.

Associated Mushrooms

Mushrooms linked to lodgepole pine: ectomycorrhizal partners, plus burn morels, which follow fire rather than a host tree.

Bluing Slippery Jack

Suillus tomentosus

Mycorrhizal with two- and three-needle pines, primarily lodgepole and shore pine (Trudell). The cap is covered in grayish-yellow fibers or scales, and the flesh stains blue, best seen by pinching the cap. Starts soon after the first fall rains and, on the coast, runs into early winter. Soft-fleshed, sometimes sour.

Mycorrhizal Edible

Western Matsutake

Tricholoma murrillianum

Grows with lodgepole pine in the eastern Cascades and in sandy soil under shore pine on the coast (Siegel & Schwarz). Fruits in fall, often buried in duff. Toxic look-alikes exist; smell is not a safe test.

Mycorrhizal Choice Edible

Photos: Lodgepole Pine — Lauren Bosch (CC0) · Bluing Slippery Jack — © Drew Henderson, CC BY-SA.

Sources: Mushrooms of Cascadia (Siegel & Schwarz, 2024); MycoMatch (© Ian Gibson), a compilation of published descriptions through which most other field-guide authors named here are quoted.