, ''Tricholoma matsutake'', is a species of choice edible
mycorrhiza
A mycorrhiza (; , mycorrhiza, or mycorrhizas) is a symbiotic association between a fungus and a plant. The term mycorrhiza refers to the role of the fungus in the plant's rhizosphere, the plant root system and its surroundings. Mycorrhizae play ...
l mushroom that grows in Eurasia and North America. It is prized in
Japanese cuisine
Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan (Japanese language, Japanese: ) is based on rice with m ...
for its distinct odor.
Etymology
The common name and specific epithet, ''matsutake'', in use since the late 19th century, derives from Japanese ''matsu'' (pine tree) and ''take'' (mushroom).
Description
The cap, stem, and gills are initially white then discolor brownish. Similarly dark fibrils appear on the cap and stalk. The cap can reach up to across while the stem is up to long and 5 cm thick. A ring is usually present. The flesh is white and firm, with a cinnamon-like aroma. The spore print is white.
Similar species
In Japan, several closely related species have been found, including '' Tricholoma bakamatsutake'' (''baka-matsutake'' – 'stupid matsutake' in Japanese), ''T. fulvocastaneum'' (''nise-matsutake'' – 'fake matsutake'), and '' T. robustum'' (''matsutake-modoki'' – 'imitation of matsutake'). Of those species, only baka-matsutake has a taste similar to that of matsutake. Both baka-matsutake and nise-matsutake grow in
Fagaceae
The Fagaceae (; ) are a family of flowering plants that includes beeches, chestnuts and oaks, and comprises eight genera with around 1,000 or more species. Fagaceae in temperate regions are mostly deciduous, whereas in the tropics, many species ...
forests, while matsutake-modoki grows in the same
pine
A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae.
''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...
forests as the genuine matsutake.
In the North American
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...
conifer
Conifers () are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a sin ...
ous forests of one or more of the following tree species:
western hemlock
''Tsuga heterophylla'', the western hemlock or western hemlock-spruce, is a species of hemlock native to the northwest coast of North America, with its northwestern limit on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, and its southeastern limit in northern ...
,
Douglas fir
The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is the tallest tree in the Pinaceae family. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Or ...
Sugar pine
''Pinus lambertiana'' (commonly known as the sugar pine or sugar cone pine) is the tallest and most massive pine tree and has the longest Conifer cone, cones of any conifer. It is native to coastal and inland mountain areas along the Pacific coa ...
,
Ponderosa pine
''Pinus ponderosa'', commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine, is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is t ...
, or
Lodgepole pine
''Pinus contorta'', with the common names lodgepole pine and shore pine, and also known as twisted pine, and contorta pine, is a common tree in western North America. It is common near the ocean shore and in dry montane forests to the subalpin ...
. In California and parts of Oregon, it is also associated with hardwoods, including
Tanoak
''Notholithocarpus densiflorus'', commonly known as the tanoak or tanbark-oak, is a broadleaf tree in the family Fagaceae, and the type species of the genus ''Notholithocarpus''. It is a hardwood tree that is native to the far western United Sta ...
Rhododendron
''Rhododendron'' (; : ''rhododendra'') is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the Ericaceae, heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are native to eastern Asia and the Himalayan ...
Jack pine
Jack pine (''Pinus banksiana''), also known as grey pine or scrub pine, is a North American pine.
Distribution and habitat
Its native range in Canada is east of the Rocky Mountains from the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories t ...
forests. A 2000 report categorized ''T. nauseosum'' as a synonym of ''T. matsutake''.
Distribution and habitat
Matsutake mushrooms grow in East Asia, South Asia (
Bhutan
Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...
), and Southeast Asia (
Laos
Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...
), parts of Europe such as
Estonia
Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...
,
Finland
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, Sweden, and along the Pacific coasts of Canada and the United States.
Matsutake mushrooms grow under trees and are usually concealed under
litter
Litter consists of waste products that have been discarded incorrectly, without consent, at an unsuitable location. The waste is objects, often man-made, such as aluminum cans, paper cups, food wrappers, cardboard boxes or plastic bottles, but ...
on the
forest floor
The forest floor, also called detritus or wikt:duff#Noun 2, duff, is the part of a forest ecosystem that mediates between the living, aboveground portion of the forest and the mineral soil, principally composed of dead and decaying plant matter ...
, forming a
symbiotic relationship
Symbiosis (Ancient Greek : living with, companionship < : together; and ''bíōsis'': living) is any type of a close and long-term biolo ...
with roots of various tree species. In
Korea
Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...
and Japan, matsutake mushrooms are most commonly associated with ''
Pinus densiflora
''Pinus densiflora'', also called the Japanese red pine, the Japanese pine, or Korean red pine, is a species of pine tree native to East Asia and Siberia. In China, the plant is known as 赤松 (pinyin: chì sōng, literally "red pine").
Distrib ...
''. In China, matsutake () is mainly distributed in the northeast and southwest regions. In the northeast, the growth of matsutake depends on the ''P. densiflora'', its distribution is the same as that of ''P. densiflora''.Longjing City, Jilin Province, China is known as the "Hometown of Matsutake". "天佛指山/Tianfozhi Mountain" in Longjing has been approved as a national nature reserve by the
State Council of China
The State Council of the People's Republic of China, also known as the Central People's Government, is the chief administrative authority and national cabinet. It is constitutionally the highest administrative organ of the country and the e ...
. This is the first nature reserve for an edible mushroom and its
ecosystem
An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...
in China.
File:Tricholoma matsutake - National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo - DSC06852.JPG
File:豊丘村産松茸.jpg
File:松茸 (6285432404).jpg
File:Fresh matsutake.jpg
Ecology
The candy cane plant or sugarstick, '' Allotropa virgata'', parasitizes these mushrooms by deriving nourishment from the fungal
mycelia
Mycelium (: mycelia) is a root-like structure of a fungus consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae. Its normal form is that of branched, slender, entangled, anastomosing, hyaline threads. Fungal colonies composed of mycelium are fo ...
via its root system. These plants can be used to signal hunters of the mushrooms, both human and animal, to the location of the fungus’ underground mycelia. Additionally, insects are also known to target these mushrooms as food and a place to lay their eggs, limiting the amount of the mushrooms that can be harvested by human gatherers.
Matsutake are hard to find because of their specific growth requirements, the rarity of appropriate forest and terrain, and competition from wild animals such as squirrels, rabbits, and deer for the once-yearly harvest of mushrooms. Domestic production of matsutake in Japan has also been sharply reduced over the latter half of the 20th century due to the pine-killing
nematode
The nematodes ( or ; ; ), roundworms or eelworms constitute the phylum Nematoda. Species in the phylum inhabit a broad range of environments. Most species are free-living, feeding on microorganisms, but many are parasitic. Parasitic worms (h ...
''
Bursaphelenchus xylophilus
''Bursaphelenchus xylophilus'', commonly known as pine wood nematode or pine wilt nematode (PWN), is a species of nematode that infects trees in the ''Pinus'' genus of coniferous trees and causes the disease pine wilt.
Matsutake is prized in
Japanese cuisine
Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan (Japanese language, Japanese: ) is based on rice with m ...
for its distinct spicy-aromatic odor. The annual harvest of matsutake in Japan is now less than 1,000 tons, with the Japanese mushroom supply largely made up by imports from China, Korea, the Pacific Northwest,
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
, and northern Europe. This results in prices in the Japanese market highly dependent on quality, availability, and origin that can range from as high as for domestically harvested matsutake at the beginning of the season to as low as , though the average value for imported matsutake is about .
In the 1940s, the abundance of the mushrooms in Japan made them accessible to the general public after long being considered a luxury good, but after the decline of these mushrooms in the region,
international trade
International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (See: World economy.)
In most countries, such trade represents a significan ...
for them created a fluctuating market that sometimes became very lucrative for the regions of the world that these mushrooms grow in, such as
Yunnan Province
Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...
of Southwest China. Very few countries other than Korea had a preexisting economy for matsutake, and Japanese speculators scoped out regions to market the fungi. Certain regions garner a higher price as well, with regions such as North America seeing a higher price by weight than regions such as those in Southwest China.
The price gathered for matsutake in Japan can vary based on the state of the mushroom. Frozen or dried matsutake are less sought after than fresh ones in luxury markets, meaning that the international trade must be done at a quick pace to keep the mushrooms from decaying.
File:Matsutake gohan (2016-11-29) 01.jpg, In '' takikomi gohan''
File:Songi-jorim.jpg, In '' jorim''
File:Jisaku Kaiseki Ryori 08.jpg, Fried
File:Dried matsutake mushrooms.jpg, Dried
File:Sesame oil with matsutake mushrooms.jpg, With
sesame oil
Sesame oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from sesame seeds. The oil is one of the earliest-known crop-based oils. Worldwide mass modern production is limited due to the inefficient manual harvesting process required to extract the oil. ...
matsutake
, ''Tricholoma matsutake'', is a species of choice edible mycorrhizal mushroom that grows in Eurasia and North America. It is prized in Japanese cuisine for its distinct odor.
Etymology
The common name and specific epithet, ''matsutake'', i ...