Habitat and Range
Strobilurus trullisatus is generally on Douglas-fir cones, has a pink cast, and differs microscopically (thinner-walled pleurocystidia with apical collarettes), (Desjardin). S. trullisatus is more common on Douglas-fir cones but can occur on Sitka spruce cones - it has a paler cap and a yellowish to yellow-grown stem with a white apex, (Siegel(2)), S. trullisatus has a whitish cap often with pink tones, favors Douglas-fir cones, and has "pleurocystidia whose tips usually bear a mass of granular material that leaves a bit of a ridge when it disappears", (Trudell). |Strobilurus albipilatus 1) has its immature cap typically dark grayish brown, 2) fruits on woody debris, rarely cones of Pinus, [according to Redhead also cones of Pseudotsuga menziesii], (whereas S. occidentalis has a particular affinity for Sitka spruce cones), and 3) has pleurocystidia that are cylindric or capitulate, thin-walled, and rarely capped with a granular and resinous mass, whereas pleurocystidia of S. occidentalis are obclavate or fusoid-ventricose (rarely subcapitate), thick-walled, and capped with a large, spherical, granular and resinous mass, (Desjardin). |Baeospora myosura has crowded gills, weakly amyloid spores, clamp connections, and a cap cuticle composed of repent, radially oriented filamentous hyphae, (Desjardin). B. myosura has even more crowded gills and smaller (3-4.5 x 2-3 microns), weakly amyloid spores, a "cap cuticle with mostly thin, flat-lying hyphae", and clamp connections, (Trudell). |Strobilurus wyomingensis (subalpine habitats of ID, WY, CO), could be a variety of S. occidentalis and is closely related genetically - it usually has larger fruitbodies and spores ((5)5.5-8(9.5) x 3.0-5(6) microns versus 4-5.5(6.5) x (2)2.5-3(4) for S. occidentalis), (Qin(1)).on "buried or exposed senescent cones or cone scales" of Picea sitchensis (Sitka spruce); "in coastal flood plains, boreal forest, or subalpine forest, sometimes near melting snow banks", (Redhead(1)), scattered to gregarious on senescent cones of Picea sitchensis (Sitka spruce), in mixed coniferous woods, October to December, (Desjardin for coastal northern California), on old cones (sometimes buried), cone bracts, and needles of pine, spruce, and Douglas fir, leaf stems of poplar, (Schalkwijk-Barendsen), in dense conifer woods, on buried wood or cones of Picea sitchensis (Sitka Spruce) and Picea glauca (White Spruce), mostly 1 but sometimes 2-3 fruitbodies per cone, early spring or late fall, (Lennox), spring, fall, winter