I didn’t expect to find these on a bicycle trail ride in Post Canyon, but there they were. Along the edge of 160 trail, a bicycle/moto trail not far from Binns hill staging area. They were just a few feet away from the trail itself, being rather obvious and not picked. They have a wonderful cinnamon/red hots odor. They got sautéed and went into our spaghetti dinner. The current botanical name is Tricholoma murrillianum.
I have picked these before and am quite familiar with them. Of course one should not pick and eat any mushroom without a strong background in the subject, because any mistake could be your last. This has been confused with the poisonous Amanita smithiana by some Matsutake hunters. There are online sources that explain some differences, here and here. As they say: there are old mushroom hunters, and bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters. Mushroom societies are present in many major cities and they usually sponsor forays into the field with experienced leaders where one can learn more about them.
While this mushroom is not uncommon, it is also not so easy to find. It is buried in the ground while first growing, later pushing up a chunk of dirt and peeking out as it matures. It has a strong association with the sugar stick plant (Allotropa virgata), a saprophyte that I have seen growing in the spring along some of the trails in Post canyon. According to “Entangled life”, a book by Merlin Sheldrake, .”After Hiroshima was destroyed by an atomic bomb, it is reported that the first living thing to emerge from the devastation was a matsutake mushroom”.
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Drew's bike blog 