Western Redcedar Thuja plicata

Western redcedar is a common tree of the Pacific Northwest, and despite the name it is not a true cedar. It belongs to the genus Thuja, not Cedrus. It has fibrous, shredding bark and flat, scale-like leaves, unlike the needles of fir or hemlock. Crushed foliage is aromatic.

Coast Salish and other PNW peoples have long used western redcedar for canoes, longhouses, baskets, clothing and medicine. The tree grows in moist forests, often alongside western hemlock and Douglas-fir.

For mushroom hunters, redcedar offers little. Unlike the conifers around it, it forms no ectomycorrhizae (its roots partner with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi instead), so it does not host chanterelles, boletes, or other ectomycorrhizal edibles. Its heartwood also contains thujaplicins, natural compounds that make it rot-resistant, so few wood-decay fungi grow on it.

Where redcedar grows alongside hemlock and Douglas-fir, chanterelles and other ectomycorrhizal mushrooms you find there are partners of those neighbors, not of the cedar. One edible, Agaricus augustus, is noted for growing in western redcedar duff (Siegel & Schwarz, Mushrooms of Cascadia); it is a litter decomposer, not a partner of the tree.

Associated Mushrooms

Western redcedar has no known ectomycorrhizal mushroom partners. Mushrooms that grow in its leaf litter are decomposers, not partners of the tree, like the one below.

The Prince

Agaricus augustus

A large Agaricus with a brown-scaly cap and an almond odor. It favors western redcedar duff, often along roads and trails (Siegel & Schwarz). Spring into fall. Some people react to it, so eat a small amount the first time.

Saprotrophic Choice Edible

Photos: Western Redcedar — Quillipede (CC0) · The Prince — © 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.