Summary:
Features include a well-defined cap and stem, colors of various gray tones, often wavy or lobed cap margin, small white pores that soon discolor, growth on the ground, and angular-warty spores. |We include in Boletopsis grisea group at least the species Boletopsis grisea which is generally a pine associate, and Boletopsis leucomelaena which is generally a spruce associate, but there may be other species as discussed below. The species concepts will likely change with further research. |Gilbertson(1) uses the name Boletopsis subsquamosa. The same authors in 1993 considered the type of P. subsquamosus as probably not a species of Boletopsis at all, and Boletopsis leucomelaena a rare circumboreal species. The name Boletopsis grisea (Peck) Bondartsev & Singer is available, but there are further complications. Analysis of DNA sequences from three Oregon collections showed two to be consistent with Boletopsis grisea and the third from unknown habitat showing some molecular affinity to the newly described pine associate Boletopsis perplexa Watl. & Milne from Scotland (the latter species close to Boletopsis leucomelaena which is a spruce associate and according to the authors'' observations found in the Pacific Northwest but not among the sequenced collections). In the same study a fourth collection from Wind River (from WA) appeared to be another unidentified sequence. (Watling). |Trudell(4) say, "Current thought suggests that at least three species could occur in the PNW. Our commonest one seems to be B. grisea (= B. subsquamosa), which apparently occurs mostly with pine; it has a dull gray to blackish, often radially streaked, cap that sometimes is slightly scaly near the center. The similar B. leucomelaena occurs mainly with spruce. Boletopsis smithii is known from a single collection in Washington and is distinctive by the orange coloration of the cap and stipe." (Trudell, Latin names italicized). |Boletopsis smithii is not considered a member of the Boletopsis grisea group in this program. |Siegel(2) describe Boletopsis grisea and Boletopsis leucomelaena as follows, with Latin names italicized, "B. grisea appears to be limited to pine forest and has whitish to pale gray colors when young, developing darker streaks and stains in age. B. leucomelaena has a black cap, white to light gray pores, and a gray stipe (often with an orangish base), and grows with spruce."

Odor:
insignificant (Lincoff(1))

Taste:
mild to bitter (Arora), weak when fresh, sweetish to spicy when dry, (Gilbertson)

Microscopic:
spores 4-7 x 3.5-5 microns, elliptic to nearly round but distinctly angular-warty, (Arora); spores 5-7 x 4-5 microns, angular and irregular in outline, inamyloid, colorless to pale brownish; basidia up to 43 microns long and 10 microns wide, with 4 large sterigmata and a basal clamp, "pleurobasidial or clavate, arising from horizontal hyphae in the subhymenium partly as swollen enlargements on the hyphae, partly with irregular outline"; hyphal system monomitic: generative hyphae of variable diameter (3-20 microns), delicately thin-walled to slightly thick-walled (in the subhymenium), colorless, branching irregular, clamp connections at all septa, (Gilbertson)

Spore Deposit:
white to pale brown (Arora)

Notes:
Members of this group are found in BC, WA, OR, ID, also NS, AL, CA, GA, MA, MI, MO, MT, NC, NH, NJ, NY, PA, TN, and VA.

EDIBILITY

edible but often bitter: the Japanese soak it in brine to remove the bitterness, (Arora), palatable if soaked, parboiled, and then cooked, (Lincoff(1))