Ecological descriptions of pine mushroom ( Tricholoma magnivelare) habitat and estimates of its extent in northwestern British Columbia

Abstract

Twenty-one sites known to be highly productive pine mushroom ( Tricholoma magnivelare [Peck] Redhead) habitat were described in northwest British Columbia. Soils were well to very rapidly drained and generally coarse in texture, often with a high coarse fragment content and thin forest floor. Western hemlock ( Tsuga heterophylla [Raf.] Sarg.) was consistently the dominant tree species, and lodgepole pine ( Pinus contortavar. latifolia Engelm) was frequently, though not always, present in the tree layer. Plant communities typically featured sparse herb and shrub layers, and a high coverage of mosses. Using the British Columbia biogeoclimatic system of ecosystem classification, all sites in the interior cedar hemlock forests were classified as the (01) Hw-step moss site series, submesic phase, and in the coastal western hemlock forests, as the (03) HwPl-feathermoss site series. Four separate areas of interior cedar hemlock forests, encompassing approximately 60,000 ha were assessed using air photography for the described (01) Hw-step moss submesic habitat. The extent of the submesic habitat across study areas ranged from 4.3 to 21.5% of the hemlock forests. The relatively low areal extent of these valuable forests demonstrated the need to better protect and manage the pine mushroom resource.