Eastern American matsutake

Identity and naming

Tricholoma magnivelare is the eastern North American matsutake in the catalogue. Western North American matsutake were long labelled with this name. A 2017 study separated the two, and restricted T. magnivelare to the eastern half of North America. The Pacific Northwest species is now generally called Tricholoma murrillianum, and one source notes that it is found mainly with pine.

The catalogue states that these are distinct taxa, not interchangeable synonyms. Several sources read for this page are older than the 2017 split and treat the western harvest under the former name, so their figures should not be read as figures for T. magnivelare alone. The catalogue's supplied source for this entry is a page on T. murrillianum, which is recorded here as a naming caveat rather than a species match.

Ecology and habitat

The catalogue records the species as an ectomycorrhizal fungus of forests, which forms a partnership with tree roots and fruits in the soil under host trees. Its supply is recorded as wild gathering. The sources read here do not give a fruiting season or an eastern locality beyond the regional record.

The catalogue places the species in eastern North America, and the 2017 study names the eastern half of the continent as its range.

Culinary use and trade

The catalogue describes the species as an aromatic culinary matsutake, used in cooked dishes.

A USDA review of the American matsutake describes a market largely international, with most of the harvest exported, mainly to Japan. One source gives a figure of 97 percent of matsutake consumed in Japan being imported. Those figures predate the 2017 split and concern mostly the western harvest, so they are not figures for the eastern species. Prices peaked in the 1990s, when western matsutake reached up to 600 dollars a pound, and have since fallen sharply, according to the same sources.

Sustainability of the harvest

The harvest is an economic activity in rural areas. Sources report declines in recent harvests and link them to deep raking and over-harvesting of the forest floor, and a USDA assessment concludes that the American species can remain a sustainable forest product if harvest and forest habitat are managed well.

Safety and identification

Safety wording: this page describes what the sources record. It is not an identification guide and it gives no verdict that any wild Tricholoma is safe to eat. The catalogue states that deadly Amanita look-alikes occur, and that this food tradition cannot identify other specimens.

Matsutake look-alikes must be excluded by a qualified expert before a specimen is eaten, and the names used for these taxa are not stable across the trade.