(c) Jasper Degenaars, all rights reserved

Bitter Brown Leucopax

(c) svenpruul, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Matsutake

VS

Matsutake is a highly prized edible mushroom with a white to brown scaly cap, thick stem, and a distinctive spicy-cinnamon aroma often described as “red hots” or pine resin. It grows from soil in conifer forests — especially lodgepole pine and other pines in the western U.S. — as a mycorrhizal partner with living trees. Brown Bitter Leucopax is a large brownish mushroom with pale crowded gills and thick flesh that can resemble matsutake at a glance but lacks the spicy aroma and has an intensely bitter taste. It grows on forest soil as a decomposer and is considered inedible due to its bitterness, though not generally regarded as dangerously toxic.