Leccinum vulpinum
Description
Leccinum vulpinum has a bright orange or red cap. White pores age toward brown, & stain brown or red-brown. Flesh stains red, darkening to purple-gray or black, esp. by stem. Likes conifers.
Stem scabers start white and age through orange, red and finally dark brown/black. Stem sometimes has blue, green, or yellowish stains lower down.
Leccinum vulpinum is a choice edible mushroom. It turns black when cooked.
Common names: Foxy Bolete, Sila lācītis (Latvia).
Mushroom Identification
Cap
This Foxy bolete is recognized for having a hat of 7-9 cm in diameter, first hemispherical and after convex or plane-convex in maturity; the margin is involute, with fringes exceeding up to 6 mm, often absent in mature specimens. The cuticle is usually dark brown-reddish, with areas of a slightly lighter color, tomentosa or squamulose. The tubules are adnate or sinuated, ventricose, 10-16 mm long, pale grayish-brown, brown-pink, a little darker to the touch.
Pores
Pores are from white-gray to brownish in old age, rather small, roundish.
Stem
The stem of 7-15 x 1.4 – 3.1 cm, cylindrical or subclavated, sometimes fusiform. It is decorated with dark grain, already at an early age, is of medium length, almost cylindrical, attenuated at the top and progressively widened towards the base with shades of greenish-black spots. These same greenish spots, are formed in the dent points.
Flesh
The flesh is whitish, with a tendency to turn slowly towards pink/orange – dark purple, especially in the stem, with a slightly fungal smell and taste.
Microscopic Features
Under the microscope, spores of 11-15.5 x 3.6-4.7 μm, spindle-shaped, of a pale-purplish-brown color in mass, with a conical apex and an evident suprailary depression are noted. The basidia are 20.5-26.5 x 7.5-10.5 μm, clavates, lageniforms, hyaline; the pleurocystidae are often clavate or slightly utriform with a reddish-brown content. The caulocystides measure 20.5 – 42.5 x 9.5 – 16.0 μm, generally clavate, with obtuse or acuminate apex, with a usually brownish content in KOH.
History
The term Leccinum comes from (i) líceus, derived from ílex, -icis leccio: from the holm oak, related to the holm oak. The specific epithet of vulpinum is attributed to the color similar to that of the fox cape.
Photo sources:
Photo 1 - Author: aesthete (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Photo 2 - Author: Игорь Лебединский (CC BY 3.0)
Photo 3 - Author: LukeEmski (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo 4 - Author: Terri Clements/Donna Fulton (pinonbistro) (CC BY-SA 3.0)
