Leccinum pseudoscabrum
Description
Leccinum pseudoscabrum is an edible species of fungus in the genus Leccinum. The cap is grayish brown, and often becomes cracked with age. It is a well-defined species in Europe. Fruitbody boletoid without veil and ring. Stipe solid, covered with numerous squamules. Flesh whitish or yellowish, sometimes spotted blue or greenish in the stipe base, in many species changing dramatically to pinkish, reddish, violaceous grey to black.
Common names: Hazel Bolete.
Mushroom Identification
Cap
Smaller than many Leccinum mushrooms, the cap diameter ranges between 4 and 9cm in diameter when fully expanded, remaining broadly convex rather than flattening out completely. The surface is usually wrinkled and sometimes cracked. When moist the cap surface is tacky or slightly greasy, drying to dull matt or very finely fleecy.
Cap color ranges from yellowish-brown to olive-buff or olive-brown. The cap flesh turns vinaceous when cut and exposed to air.
Tubes and Pores
The creamy-white tubes terminate in pores typically 0.5mm in diameter that are also creamy white. The pores turn slowly blackish when they are bruised.
Stem
The stipe or stem is 4-12cm tall and typically 0.8 to 1.2cm in diameter, tapering in slightly towards the apex, has a white or pale grey surface covered with buff scales near the apex grading o brown scales near to the stem base.
When cut, the pale stem flesh turns vinaceous near the apex and blueish towards the stem base.
Spores
Fusiform with a conical apex, smooth, thin-walled,13-18.5 x 4-6µm, inamyloid.
Spore Print
Ochraceous-brown.
Odor and Taste
Not distinctive.
Habitat & Ecological Role
Mycorrhizal, most often beneath hornbeam but less commonly with hazel.
Season
June to October.
Similar Species
Leccinum scabrum, a larger bolete that usually occurs under birch, generally has a browner cap but is occasionally yellowish brown.
History
The basionym of this species dates from a 1935 publication by German mycologist Franz Joseph Kallenbach (1893 - 1944), who gave it the scientific name Boletus pseudoscaber. It was Czech mycologist Josef Šutara (b. 1943) who, in 1989, established the currently-accepted scientific name Leccinum pseudoscabrum.
Synonyms of Leccinum pseudoscabrum include Boletus scaber var. carpini R. Schulz, Boletus pseudoscaber Kallenb., Boletus carpini (R. Schulz) A. Pearson, Leccinum carpini (R. Schulz) M.M. Moser ex D.A. Reid, and Krombholziella pseudoscabra (Kallenb.) Šutara.
Leccinum, the generic name, is derived from an old Italian word meaning fungus. The specific epithet pseudoscabrum comprises the prefix pseudo- meaning almost or similar to, and the suffix -scabrum meaning with scabers - a reference to the roughly scaly or scurfy surface of stems of this mushroom.
Photo sources:
Photo 1 - Author: George Chernilevsky (Public Domain)
Photo 2 - Author: Andreas Kunze (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Photo 3 - Author: Björn S... (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Photo 4 - Author: Andreas Kunze (CC BY-SA 3.0)