Leccinum scabrum (Fries) S.F. Gray
Nat. Arr. Brit. Pl. 1: 647. 1821.

Common Name: Birch Bolete

• Pileus

  Cap 5.0-14.0 cm broad, convex, broadly convex in age with a decurved margin; surface when young, dingy-tan, dull, matted-tomentose, subviscid, occasionally areolate; at maturity sometimes weathering glabrous, becoming viscid, medium-brown to dull olive-brown; context soft, up to 1.5 cm thick, cream-colored, unchanging or occasionally faintly pink or blue where cut or injured; odor and taste mild.

• Hymenophore

  Pores cream-buff to pale tan, bruising pale olive-buff, deeply depressed at the stipe; tubes 1-2 cm long, pallid when young, in age pale coco-brown, unchanging when cut or bruised.

• Stipe

  Stipe 8.0-14.0 cm long, 2.0-4.0 cm thick, clavate in youth, becoming subclavate to equal at maturity, solid, straight; surface of apex pruinose, pallid to cream, longitudinally ridged below, sometimes forming a coarse reticulum, ornamented with black squamules; partial veil absent.

• Spores

  Spores 14-18 x 5-6 µm, subfusoid to narrowly ellipsoid, smooth, thin-walled with variously-sized vacuolar inclusions; spore print dull brown.

• Habitat

  Solitary to scattered under ornamental birch (Betula spp.). fruiting in late summer in watered areas, again shortly after the fall rains.

• Edibility

  Edible, of fair quality. Many Leccinums are better after being dried.

• Comments

  Leccinum scabrum is recognized by a dull tan-brown to medium-brown cap that may be subviscid to viscid depending on conditions, and a context that normally does not blue when cut, or if so, only faintly. In California it appears to be restricted to ornamental birches (Betula spp.) planted in urban areas, and presumably was introduced on nursery rootstock. It often fruits with another birch-loving species, Lactarius pubescens var. betulae.

• Other Descriptions and Photos
  • Boleslaw Kuznik -- Hunting for Mushrooms: Leccinum scabrum (CP)
  • Na Grzyby: Leccinum scabrum (D & CP)
  • Svampbok: Leccinum scabrum (D & CP)
  • George Barron's Fungi of Canada (East): Leccinum scabrum (D & CP)
  • Pilze, Pilze, Pilze: Leccinum scabrum (CP)
  • Roy Watling: Leccinum key
  • Arora (1986): 541 (D)
  • Arora (1991): p. 169 (D & CP)
  • Bessette et al. (2000): p. 214 (D), p. 329 (CP)
  • Breitenbach & Kränzlin (vol. 3): sp. 37 (D, I, & CP)
  • Jordan: p. 342 (D & CP)
  • Lincoff: p. 578 (D), plate 390 (CP)
  • Miller: sp. 296 (D & CP)
  • Orr & Orr: p. 87 (D), plate 27 (CP)
  • Phillips: p. 238 (CP), p. 239 (D)
  • Smith & Thiers (1971): p. 202 (D), p. 188 (P)
  • Smith & Weber: sp. 73 (D & CP)
  • Tylutki: p. 19 (D)

  (D=Description; I=Illustration; P=Photo; CP=Color Photo)