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

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) HwP1-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.