How to Grow and Care for Tricholoma

A part of many traditional Japanese dishes, this wild mushroom is threatened in its home region by the destruction of the islands' pine forests that play host to the matsutake. It also grows in North America, in large enough numbers to be harvested for commercial sale at extremely high prices. Attempts at specific cultivation have not been successful.

The thick, squat yellow knight mushroom sometimes grows into a saddle-shaped cap. This species is distinguished in the field from the Sulphur Knight mainly by its own lack of a distinctive smell. Older guides may list these mushrooms as edible, but they have been linked to several confirmed poisoning cases in which their toxins had caused painful muscle damage.