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Investigating the dispersal of the root‐pathogenic fungus Armillaria mellea is necessary to understand its population biology. Such an investigation is complicated by both its subterranean habit and the persistence of genotypes over successive host generations. As such, host colonization by resident mycelia is thought to outcompete spore infections.

We evaluated the contributions of mycelium and spores to host colonization by examining a site in which hosts pre‐date A. mellea. Golden Gate Park (San Francisco, CA, USA) was established in 1872 primarily on sand dunes that supported no resident mycelia. Genotypes were identified by microsatellite markers and somatic incompatibility pairings. Spatial autocorrelation analyses of kinship coefficients were used to infer spore dispersal distance.

The largest genotypes measured 322 and 343 m in length, and 61 of the 90 total genotypes were recovered from …