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Pine

Pine — mushrooms with the trait «Pine»

Pine woods are the classic setting for "quiet hunting". Thanks to sandy soils, good light and a powerful root system, pine (Pinus) is one of the most productive mycorrhizal partners, rewarding foragers with the biggest harvests of valuable edible mushrooms.

24 species in the database.

Ectomycorrhiza and the royal mushrooms of the pine forest

In her "Key to the Fungi of Ukraine", M.Ya. Zerova describes pine as a tree with a phenomenal ability to form ectomycorrhiza with the most valuable boletes and gilled macrofungi.

Roger Phillips and David Arora single out the following "elite" of the pine forest:

1. Pine bolete (Boletus edulis f. pinicola): The most coveted find. This form of porcini stands out with its dark cherry or reddish-brown cap and an incredibly thick stem. It grows mainly in old pine forests.

2. Slippery jack (Suillus luteus) and weeping bolete (Suillus granulatus): These are absolute markers of pine. They fruit especially abundantly in young pine plantations (5-15 years old). Without pine roots, these mushrooms do not exist.

3. Saffron milk cap (Lactarius deliciosus): One of the most valuable first-category mushrooms. It is orange, exudes bright orange milk and grows only in coniferous, mostly pine, forests.

4. Charbonnier (Tricholoma portentosum): A late-autumn mushroom that is often gathered in pine forests even after the first frosts. The yellow knight (Tricholoma equestre) grows in the same pine woods and was traditionally picked too, but please be careful: since the 2000s it has been linked to rhabdomyolysis (muscle breakdown), including fatal cases, and its sale is banned in several EU countries. We don't recommend picking it — see the Yellow knight page for details.

Deadly dangers of the pine forest

In «Mushrooms Demystified», David Arora issues a stern warning: pine forests are home to the most dangerous mushrooms in the world.

- Destroying angel (Amanita virosa): This dazzling white, deadly poisonous mushroom (it contains amatoxins) is a typical mycorrhizal companion of pine and spruce. It is often mistaken for wild Agaricus mushrooms.

- Death cap (Amanita phalloides): Although it prefers oaks and beeches, the death cap is perfectly capable of forming mycorrhiza with pine.

- Funeral bell (Galerina marginata): This small but deadly poisonous mushroom often grows on rotting stumps and fallen pine trunks.

Questions and answers

Why are there few slippery jacks in old pine forests but many in young ones?
The root system of young pines lies closer to the surface, where the sun warms the soil faster. These are ideal conditions for slippery jack mycelium. As the forest ages, the canopy closes, the soil gets shaded and covered with a thick layer of needles, and the slippery jacks disappear — but porcini and bay boletes take their place.
How do you tell the edible saffron milk cap from the poisonous woolly milk cap?
The saffron milk cap (Lactarius deliciosus) grows under pine and exudes bright orange milk that turns green in the air. The woolly milk cap grows under birch, has a fluffy cap margin and exudes white, burning-hot milk.
Can you find honey fungus in a pine forest?
Yes. Honey fungus (Armillaria mellea) is a parasite and saprotroph that happily colonizes dead pine stumps.
How do you pick Agaricus mushrooms safely in a pine forest?
In coniferous forests it is extremely easy to cut a white destroying angel (Amanita virosa) by accident instead of an Agaricus. There is one rule: always dig the mushroom up together with the base of the stem. If there is a "sac" (volva) in the ground, it is an amanita. Besides, a mature Agaricus has pink or brown gills, while the amanita's gills are always perfectly white.

Sources

  1. 1.Зерова М.Я. та ін. Визначник грибів України. 1979
  2. 2.Roger Phillips. Mushrooms (Roger Phillips)
  3. 3.David Arora. Mushrooms Demystified
  4. 4.Index Fungorum