Aspen Bolete

Description

Aspen Bolete is a common and widespread mushroom. It is found on the ground, widely scattered or in groups, in woods and woodland edges exclusively under aspen trees. It obtains its nutrients from the rootlets of trees (mycorrhizal). It appears in the summer and early fall, August to October.

The cap is hairless or minutely hairy, dry, and bright orange, reddish-orange, orangish-brown, or cinnamon. It is slightly slippery to the touch when wet. When young, in the button stage, it is round to convex and smooth, and there are usually flaps of sterile tissue attached to the margin. The cap spreads out as it ages. Mature caps are 2⅜″ to 6¾″ wide, broadly convex to nearly flat, duller or paler in color, and sometimes pitted.

The stalk is firm, solid, somewhat tough and fibrous, and dry. It is 2⅜″ to 6″ tall and ⅜″ to 1″ thick, sometimes thicker at the base. It is white or whitish and covered by numerous short, rough, projecting scales (scabers). The scabers are whitish or pale at first, becoming reddish-brown to orange as they age, then black at maturity. The base of the stalk turns blue when cut.

The are no gills. There is a sponge-like layer of tubes on the underside of the cap. The tubes and tube openings (pores) are whitish or pale when young, becoming olive-buff to gray or yellowish-buff with age. They do not turn blue when bruised.

The flesh is thick and often soft. It turns bluish-gray or purplish-gray when bruised or cut, but that may take a long time. Most sources state that all mushrooms in the genus Leccinum are safe to eat. Recently, however, Aspen Bolete has been known (or thought) to cause gastrointestinal distress in some individuals.

The spore print is brown to yellowish-brown.

Similar Species

Orange-capped, scaber-stalked mushrooms in North America have often been identified as Red-Capped Scaber Stalk (Leccinum aurantiacum), both in printed guides and on popular mushroom websites. However, recent DNA analysis suggests that Red-Capped Scaber Stalk is a European species that does not occur in North America. Those orange-capped misidentifications associated with broadleaved trees are most likely Aspen Bolete.

Habitat and Hosts

On the ground exclusively under aspen

Ecology

Season

Summer and early fall