Is the booted tricholoma in British Columbia really Japanese matsutake?

Abstract

Using DNA sequence information, we compared three collections of the booted tricholoma (Tricholoma caligatum) and four collections of the pine mushroom (Tricholoma magnivelare) from British Columbia with the Japanese matsutake (Tricholoma matsutake) and with other North American collections of booted tricholoma and pine mushroom. We found that, in North America, the booted tricholoma is a distinct species and not the same as Japanese matsutake or pine mushroom. This implies that habitat information describing sites where pine mushroom is commercially harvested in British Columbia may not be relevant to the booted tricholoma. This may be important to forest managers concerned with pine mushroom management because although mushroom buyers purchase the booted tricholoma as pine mushroom, we don't know whether managing forests for pine mushroom would also manage for booted tricholoma.