Leccinum albellum

What You Should Know

Leccinellum albellum is a species of bolete fungus in the family Boletaceae. Originally described by Charles Horton Peck as a species of Boletus, and, after 1945, usually considered a species of Leccinum, it was transferred to the newly created genus Leccinellum in 2003. It is a whitish to very pale brown species of Leccinum associated with oaks east of the Rocky Mountains. It is very similar in appearance to Leccinum holopus, although the latter species is sometimes prone to blue staining on the stem and pinkish staining in the sliced flesh. Young specimens have tiny white scabers that darken to gray/brown with age. Likes oak.

The bolete was reported from a Mexican beech (Fagus mexicana) forest in Hidalgo, Mexico in 2010.

Leccinum albellum Mushroom Identification

1. Ecology

   Mycorrhizal with oaks and possibly also associated with other hardwoods; appearing alone or gregariously; summer and fall; widely distributed in eastern North America from the northeast to the upper Midwest and the southeastern United States, through Texas into Mexico.

2. Cap

   3–7 cm; convex, becoming broadly convex; dry or, when young and fresh, a little tacky; bald; pale brownish to nearly white; often developing a mosaic-like, cracked appearance with old age.

3. Pore Surface

   Whitish, becoming pale brownish; not bruising; 1–3 angular pores per mm; tubes to 12 mm deep; by maturity usually depressed at the stem.

4. Stem

   5–9 cm long; 7–12 mm thick; equal, or with a slightly tapering apex; finely scabrous with grayish to brownish or brown scabers; ground color whitish to very pale grayish (usually paler toward apex and darker below); basal mycelium white, often copious.

5. Flesh

   White to pale yellowish in places; not staining on exposure.

6. Odor and Taste

   Not distinctive.

7. Spore Print

   Olive brown.

8. Edibility

   Good, though the stem is often to stringy to be worth eating.

9. Microscopic Features

   Spores 13–20 x 4–5.5 µm; narrowly fusiform; smooth; golden in KOH. Basidia to about 30 x 13 µm; clavate; 4-sterigmate. Hymenial cystidia 30–55 x 7.5–12.5 µm; variously shaped but primarily lageniform; smooth; thin-walled; hyaline in KOH. Pileipellis a trichoderm of inflated, chained elements (an epithelium) 10–25 µm wide, smooth, thin-walled, hyaline to yellowish in KOH; terminal and subterminal cells subglobose to clavate or irregular. Caulocystidia in bundles with caulobasidia; variously shaped but mostly lageniform with a long, twisted neck (also mucronate, subclavate, or irregular); up to 60 x 15 µm or longer; hyaline to grayish brown in KOH.

Leccinum albellum Synonyms

1. Boletus albellus Peck, 1888

2. Ceriomyces albellus (Peck) Murrill, 1909

3. Ceriomyces reticulatus

4. Krombholziella albella (Peck) Šutara, 1982

5. Leccinum albellum (Peck) Bresinsky & Manfr.Binder, 2003

Sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Dan Molter (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)

Photo 2 - Author: dario.z (dario13) (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)

Photo 3 - Author: Hamilton (ham) (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)