Browse Mushrooms

Mycorrhizal Mushrooms: Root Partners of the Forest

Mycorrhizal mushrooms live in a trade with trees, passing water and minerals to the roots in return for sugar. That partnership keeps most of them off the farm and brings foragers back to the same trees each year.

Species in this group

45 species

Beautiful clavaria with a pale base, salmon-pink branches, and yellow tips in woodland litter

Beautiful Clavaria

Ramaria formosa

Bitter beech bolete with a pale cap, yellow pores, and a red netted stem on woodland soil

Bitter Beech Bolete

Caloboletus calopus

Bitter bolete mushroom in oak leaf litter with a smooth pale brown domed cap and a thick pale stem

Bitter Bolete

Tylopilus felleus

Large clay-brown bitter poisonpie with cinnamon gills and a coarse pale stem beneath beech

Bitter Poisonpie

Hebeloma sinapizans

Cut Périgord black truffle with black polygonal warts and fine white veins

Black Truffle

Tuber melanosporum

Fresh black trumpet mushrooms showing hollow funnels and smooth gray outer surfaces

Black Trumpet

Craterellus cornucopioides

Blood-red webcap with red cap gills stem and cobwebby cortina in moss

Blood-Red Webcap

Cortinarius sanguineus

Booted amanita with pale patched cap free white gills ring and collared bulb

Booted Amanita

Amanita multisquamosa

Massive brawny bolete with red pores netted stem and dark blue-black cut flesh

Brawny Bolete

Imperator torosus

Bronze bolete with dark velvety cap pale pores netted stem and white flesh

Bronze Bolete

Boletus aereus

A brown roll-rim mushroom with an inrolled cottony cap margin and yellowish gills running down the stem

Brown Roll-Rim

Paxillus involutus

Burnt knight with wet chestnut cap notched pale gills and brown lower stem

Burnt Knight

Tricholoma ustale

Caesar's mushroom in oak leaf litter with a smooth bright orange cap, yellow gills and a loose white bag at the base

Caesar's Mushroom

Amanita caesarea

A cluster of golden chanterelle mushrooms on a mossy forest floor

Chanterelle

Cantharellus cibarius

Illustration of a reddish-brown deadly webcap with a dry cap and yellowish veil patches in mossy woodland

Deadly Webcap

Cortinarius rubellus

A pale greenish Death Cap mushroom showing white gills, a ring, and a cup-like base

Death Cap

Amanita phalloides

A pure white destroying angel mushroom with free white gills, a skirt-like ring, and a sac around its base

Destroying Angel

Amanita bisporigera

False death cap mushroom in beech leaf litter with a pale lemon yellow cap carrying large white veil patches

False Death Cap

Amanita citrina

A bright red fly agaric mushroom covered in white cottony warts with a white ring and a banded swollen base

Fly Agaric

Amanita muscaria

Gemmed amanita in pine needle duff with a pale creamy yellow cap bearing soft white veil patches

Gemmed Amanita

Amanita gemmata

Hedgehog mushroom growing in green moss with an irregular creamy white cap and thick off-center white stem

Hedgehog Mushroom

Hydnum repandum

Matsutake mushroom in pine needle litter with a thick solid white stem and a white cap overlaid with flattened brown scales

Matsutake

Tricholoma matsutake

Yellow morel mushrooms with honeycomb caps on a spring forest floor

Morel

Morchella esculenta

A brown panther cap mushroom scattered with white cottony warts, showing white gills and a collared bulb at the stem base

Panther Cap

Amanita pantherina

A porcini mushroom with a brown bun-shaped cap and a stout pale stem carrying a fine white network

Porcini

Boletus edulis

Saffron milk caps in pine needle litter, carrot orange funnel-shaped caps with darker concentric zones

Saffron Milk Cap

Lactarius deliciosus

Slippery jack mushrooms in pine needle litter with glossy chestnut brown slimy caps

Slippery Jack

Suillus luteus

Sulphur knight mushroom in oak leaf litter with a bright sulphur yellow cap and slender yellow stem

Sulphur Knight

Tricholoma sulphureum

Blusher mushroom in beech leaf litter with a dull pinkish brown warty cap and hanging white ring

The Blusher

Amanita rubescens

Small cinnamon webcaps with brown caps, orange gills and yellowish stems in moss

Cinnamon Webcap

Cortinarius cinnamomeus

Half-free morel with a small pitted cap attached halfway down a long pale stem in spring woodland

Half-Free Morel

Morchella punctipes

Tawny webcaps with dry yellow-brown caps and clubbed stems in conifer woodland

Tawny Webcap

Aureonarius callisteus

Robust tiger knight mushrooms with gray-brown scaled caps and white stems on a forest floor

Tiger Knight

Tricholoma pardinum

A yellow knight mushroom with a greenish yellow cap and bright yellow gills growing in sandy soil

Yellow Knight

Tricholoma equestre

Warty yellow-brown common earthballs in moss with one mature shell split open

Common Earthball

Scleroderma citrinum

Pale deadly fibrecaps with fibrous caps and brick-red stains on soil beneath broadleaf trees

Deadly Fibrecap

Inosperma erubescens

Massive devil's bolete with a pale cap, red pores, and bulbous red-netted stem in leaf litter

Devil's Bolete

Rubroboletus satanas

Fool's mushroom with a white cap, free gills, upper ring, and baglike volva in spring oak litter

Fool's Mushroom

Amanita verna

Fool's webcap with a dry tawny cap, rusty gills and a pale fibrous stem

Fool's Webcap

Cortinarius orellanus

Western destroying angel with a white cap, free gills, fragile ring, and membranous volva in oak leaf litter

Western Destroying Angel

Amanita ocreata

Ivory white chanterelles with wavy caps and blunt ridges in Pacific Northwest conifer duff

White Chanterelle

Cantharellus subalbidus

Tiny white fibrecap with a pointed silky cap and slender ringless stem beside moss and a beech leaf

White Fibrecap

Inocybe geophylla

Italian white truffle uncovered near tree roots in autumn woodland

White Truffle

Tuber magnatum

Pink zoned woolly milkcaps with shaggy inrolled margins among birch leaves

Woolly Milkcap

Lactarius torminosus

Pale poison pie mushrooms with sticky caps and clay-brown gills in autumn woodland litter

Poison Pie

Hebeloma crustuliniforme

Poisonous Keep browsing Browse mushrooms by habitat

A partnership with living roots

These fungi wrap around or into tree roots and trade nutrients with the tree. The fungus passes water and minerals to the roots, and the tree pays in sugar. Neither side grows as well alone.

Because the mushroom needs a living host, you cannot cultivate most mycorrhizal species on straw or sawdust the way you grow oyster mushrooms. Oysters feed on dead wood and belong with the wood decomposers, and the root partners still need their tree.

Why do foragers care about root partners?

Many of the great wild edibles are mycorrhizal, including chanterelles and porcini. They return to the same trees year after year, so a good patch is worth remembering. The fungus lives on in the soil with its host tree, and the patch can fruit again in the same place.

The Amanitas under the same trees

The deadly Amanitas share this way of life. The death cap partners with oaks and other broadleaved trees, and it can fruit in parks, gardens and street-tree strips as well as in woods. The tree above a chanterelle patch can shelter a death cap too, so each find from this hub needs its own complete identification.

Warning

Some of the deadliest mushrooms, the Amanitas, are also mycorrhizal and grow in the same woods. Growing with a tree does not make a mushroom safe.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you grow mycorrhizal mushrooms at home?

Usually not at kitchen scale. They need a living tree partner, so you cannot grow them indoors on straw or sawdust the way you grow oyster or shiitake.

Why do chanterelles come back in the same spot?

Chanterelles depend on living tree roots. The fungus persists in the soil with its host tree, so a productive patch tends to fruit in the same place each year.