Trees & Their Mushrooms A Forager’s Guide to Pacific Northwest Tree Species

Knowing your trees is essential for mushroom hunting. Many of the most prized edible mushrooms, including chanterelles, porcini and matsutake, are mycorrhizal: they partner with the roots of particular trees. Learn the trees, and you’ll know where to look.

This guide covers the major tree species of Oregon and Washington, organized by forest type. Each profile includes the mushrooms associated with that tree, where to find them, and how to identify them.

Westside Conifers

The wet, west-of-the-crest forests where the fall mushroom season peaks. Hemlock and spruce here are hosts for chanterelles, hedgehogs and the coastal king bolete.

Sitka Spruce

Picea sitchensis

The largest spruce, in a narrow coastal strip from northern California to Alaska. Partner of the rainbow chanterelle, Washington hedgehog and coastal king bolete.

Westside Coastal Ectomycorrhizal

Western Hemlock

Tsuga heterophylla

Very shade tolerant, and the climax tree of many moist west-side forests. With Douglas fir, a main host of the Pacific golden chanterelle; the admirable bolete grows on its rotting logs.

Westside Ectomycorrhizal

Western Redcedar

Thuja plicata

Forms no ectomycorrhizae (its root partners are arbuscular fungi), and its rot-resistant wood hosts few decay fungi. Mushrooms in cedar stands are mostly partners of the hemlock and Douglas fir beside it.

Westside

Pacific Silver Fir

Abies amabilis

A true fir of snowy mountain forests in the Cascades and Olympics. Field guides record king boletes and matsutake with true firs in general rather than with this species.

Westside Ectomycorrhizal

Cascade-Spanning Conifers

These conifers grow on both sides of the crest, from the wet west-side lowlands into the drier interior.

Douglas Fir

Pseudotsuga menziesii

A dominant conifer of low- and mid-elevation forests, west of the Cascades and into drier forests east of the crest. With western hemlock, the main host of the Pacific golden chanterelle; matsutake grows with it in drier forest.

Westside Eastside Ectomycorrhizal

Grand Fir

Abies grandis

A true fir of moist valley bottoms west of the Cascades and moist mountain slopes to the east. Guides seldom name it apart from other true firs; it is a named host of the toxic red-pored bolete and of Indian paint fungus.

Westside Eastside Ectomycorrhizal

Western White Pine

Pinus monticola

A five-needled pine of mid-elevation mixed-conifer forests on both sides of the Cascades. Partner of five-needle-pine Suillus, especially S. americanus; once a major timber tree before white pine blister rust.

Westside Eastside Ectomycorrhizal

Eastside Conifers

East of the Cascades, drier forests of pine, spruce, and larch support different mushroom communities — including burn morels, Suillus, and spring kings.

Ponderosa Pine

Pinus ponderosa

The pine of the dry east side. Partner of Suillus and the spring king bolete; burn morels fruit in its forests the spring after a fire.

Eastside Ectomycorrhizal Burn Morels

Lodgepole Pine

Pinus contorta

Fire-adapted pine that regrows quickly after a burn; shore pine is its coastal form. Partner of Suillus and western matsutake, and burn morels fruit in its burned stands.

Eastside Ectomycorrhizal Burn Morels

Engelmann Spruce

Picea engelmannii

Subalpine spruce, mostly east of the Cascade crest. King boletes fruit with it on the east slope, and rainbow chanterelles occasionally.

Eastside Ectomycorrhizal

Western Larch

Larix occidentalis

A deciduous conifer: its needles turn gold and drop each fall. An eastside montane tree that partners with larch-specific Suillus, such as S. clintonianus, long misnamed S. grevillei (D. Miller, Danny’s DNA Discoveries).

Eastside Ectomycorrhizal

Hardwoods & Broadleaves

Deciduous trees and broadleaf evergreens support a different set of mushrooms — morels in cottonwood bottoms, oysters and late oysters on dead alder and maple, and, in southwest Oregon, chanterelles and the queen bolete under tanoak.

Black Cottonwood

Populus trichocarpa

A riparian tree of rivers and floodplains. Natural morels and Verpa bohemica fruit under it in spring, and oysters grow on its dead wood.

Ectomycorrhizal Morels

Oregon White Oak

Quercus garryana

The only native oak in Washington and British Columbia. Its partners include the spring coccora and many Cortinarius and Russula; the white king bolete only rarely.

Westside Ectomycorrhizal

Red Alder

Alnus rubra

Pioneer species that colonizes disturbed sites. Forms its own specialist root partners, and dead alder wood hosts oysters and late oysters.

Westside Ectomycorrhizal

Bigleaf Maple

Acer macrophyllum

Not ectomycorrhizal (its partners are arbuscular fungi). Mossy trunks carry licorice fern, and its dead wood hosts late oysters and oysters.

Westside

Pacific Madrone

Arbutus menziesii

Broadleaf evergreen of dry, south- and west-facing slopes. Its arbutoid mycorrhizae share fungi with Douglas fir; the fall coccora grows with it in southern Oregon.

Westside Ectomycorrhizal

Tanoak

Notholithocarpus densiflorus

Southwestern Oregon south through California. Host of the queen bolete, California golden chanterelle and California black trumpet.

Westside Ectomycorrhizal

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; Danny’s DNA Discoveries and the PNW Pictorial Key (© Danny Miller); iNaturalist observations.

Related Resources

Tree thumbnails via iNaturalist (CC0): Sitka spruce — Laura Holloway · Douglas fir — Quillipede · Western hemlock — Erin Springinotic · Pacific silver fir — Shane Johnson · Ponderosa pine — Daryl Nolan · Lodgepole pine — Lauren Bosch · Western larch — Kate Manning · Grand fir — Lauren Bosch · Western white pine — Erin Springinotic · Black cottonwood — Drew Meyer · Bigleaf maple — Quillipede · Pacific madrone — Quillipede · Tanoak — GinaGPark · Oregon white oak — Tom Erler · Red alder — Shane Johnson. Western redcedar photo © Salish Mushrooms. Header photo: Sitka spruce forest © Sam Beaumont, CC BY 4.0, cropped.