Macrofungal communities of four altitudinal zones of the Northern Rocky Mountain region are described and compared with respect to species richness, production (g/100m2/yr), functional structure (mycorrhizal vs. decomposer), seasonality of activity and relationship to temperature and rainfall. Two study sites of 100m2 were established in grasslands, Douglas-fir forest, subalpine fir (spruce-fir) forest and in the alpine. Each study site was visited fortnightly during the collecting season (May-September) in 1997 and 1998, monthly in 1999, with a limited number of trips to the alpine. All fungal sporocarps were collected, dried, weighed, and identified to species when possible. Soil moisture and soil temperature readings were taken at each visit during 1997 and 1998. Species richness varied with the elevational gradient from three species collected in grasslands, 60 species collected in Douglas-fir forests, 61 species collected in subalpine fir forests, and zero species collected in the alpine. Sixty-five species (out of 100 total species) fruited only during the wettest year of the study, 1997. Standing crop estimates ranged from 0.0002 to 0.005 g/100m2 in grassland, 0.01 to 2.16 g/100m2 in Douglas-fir forests, 0.04 to 1.63 g/100m2 in subalpine fir (spruce-fir forests) and no sporocarps were collected in the alpine. Standing crop was greatest in the grassland and forest sites in the wettest year, 1997. Species richness and production peaked earlier in the Douglas-fir forests (June), than in subalpine fir forests (August and September). With the majority of fungal species in the study fruiting only in the wettest year (1997), one might conclude that collecting sporocarps in a wet year provides a better indication of species richness than collecting in several typical (dry) years. The 100m2 plot size used in this study may bias for the sampling of saprophytic species, and may under-sample the more patchily distributed mycorrhizal species.