Sitka Spruce Picea sitchensis

Sitka spruce is a tree of the coastal fog belt, growing in a narrow strip along the Pacific coast from northern California to Alaska. It is the largest of the spruces. Several of the mushrooms below are tied to these coastal spruce forests.

Identify it by the needles: stiff, flat, and so sharp they’re genuinely uncomfortable to grab — the quickest way to tell it from the soft-needled western hemlock it often grows beside. The bark is thin and scaly. Sitka spruce is ectomycorrhizal, and its fungal partners include many Russula and Lactarius species, Washington hedgehog (Hydnum washingtonianum), and rainbow chanterelle (Cantharellus roseocanus) (Siegel & Schwarz, Mushrooms of Cascadia).

Sitka spruce follows the coastal fog belt, in cool, moist maritime conditions. In Washington and Oregon it grows on the outer Olympic Peninsula and along the coast, usually mixed with western hemlock and red alder.

Several coastal mushrooms keep fruiting into winter. Golden chanterelles continue into early winter on the coast, Washington hedgehogs can fruit into spring in wet years, and yellowfoot (Craterellus tubaeformis) fruits through winter, peaking in late fall and early winter (Siegel & Schwarz). Coastal Sitka spruce is also one of two equal habitats for the king bolete (Boletus edulis); the other is higher-elevation conifer forest in the Cascades.

Associated Mushrooms

Mushrooms found in Sitka spruce forests, from partners the field guides name to generalists that grow with many trees.

Russula

Russula spp.

A very large genus that partners with many trees; many species are recorded with Sitka spruce. Some are edible, others acrid and bitter, and species-level ID is hard.

Mycorrhizal

Fly Agaric

Amanita muscaria

Red cap with white veil patches. It partners with nearly any ectomycorrhizal tree, and the white-veiled form is probably most of what grows in coastal spruce forests. Toxic if eaten without special preparation.

Mycorrhizal

Rainbow Chanterelle

Cantharellus roseocanus

The chanterelle most tied to Sitka spruce: locally common in coastal spruce forests from early summer into fall. Its ridges are a brighter peachy orange than those of other PNW chanterelles.

Mycorrhizal Choice Edible

Pacific Golden Chanterelle

Cantharellus formosus

The most common chanterelle in the PNW, usually with Douglas-fir and western hemlock. It also grows with Sitka spruce; the chanterelle most tied to coastal Sitka spruce is the rainbow chanterelle (C. roseocanus).

Mycorrhizal Choice Edible

Washington Hedgehog

Hydnum washingtonianum

Tooth-like spines instead of gills. Partners with many trees, especially spruce and pine, and begins fruiting by late summer or early fall and lasts into winter. (European H. repandum does not occur here.)

Mycorrhizal Choice Edible

Porcini

Boletus edulis

King bolete. Coastal Sitka spruce is one of its two equal habitats (the other is higher-elevation Cascades conifers), fruiting in early to mid fall. Firm texture and rich flavor, but check for worms.

Mycorrhizal Choice Edible

Chicken of the Woods

Laetiporus conifericola

Bright orange shelf fungus on living and dead conifers, stumps and logs, with true firs and spruce the usual hosts. It rots wood brown. Eat only young, soft brackets, cook thoroughly, and sample sparingly: some people get an upset stomach.

Parasitic Edible

Photos: Porcini — © Alan Rockefeller, CC BY.

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.