Chalciporus piperatoides (A.H. Sm. & Thiers) T.J. Baroni and Both
no common name
Boletaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
no common name
Boletaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
Photograph
Species Information
Summary:
Features include 1) a buff to yellow brown or rusty brown cap, 2) brownish flesh that typically turns blue when cut, 3) irregular somewhat radial pores that are yellow to brown and stain blue to bluish black when bruised, 4) a stem that is cap-colored except at the base where it is bright yellow, and 5) peppery taste.
Chemical Reactions:
cap cuticle dark rusty brown to blackish with application of KOH, flesh dull brown to purplish red or gray with application of KOH, (Bessette), flesh bluish gray with FeSO4, with flesh in KOH a yellow pigment dissolves into the mount, the reaction of the cap surface soon brownish, (Smith)
Taste:
slowly acrid [peppery] (Bessette), slowly peppery (not as hot as B. piperatus), (Smith)
Microscopic:
spores 6-10 x 3-4 microns, subfusiform [somewhat spindle-shaped], smooth, yellowish to pale brown, (Bessette), spores 7-9(10) x 3-3.5 microns, somewhat boat-shaped, smooth, in Melzer''s fleeting amyloid fresh and as revived pale bister to dingy pale tan, in KOH pale clay color soon fading to bright yellow singly and more brownish in groups; basidia 4-spored, 23-28 x 5.5-7.5 microns, clavate, colorless to yellowish in KOH; pleurocystidia 36-57 x 7-12 microns, narrowly fusoid-ventricose to subcylindric, colorless to yellow in KOH and Melzer''s reagent, cheilocystidia similar but smaller and content yellow to yellow-brown; cap cuticle of "interwoven hyphae 4-8 microns wide, yellowish in KOH and with end-cells tubular to narrowly clavate, the walls showing a slight tendency to become roughened"; stem cuticle with fertile patches near top of stem with basidia and cystidia resembling those in hymenium; tube trama sections mounted in Melzer''s and crushed become dark greenish to bluish green under microscope (but no localized amyloid reaction is present); clamp connections absent, (Smith)
Spore Deposit:
dark smoky olive when fresh, rusty cinnamon when dry, (Bessette)
Notes:
Chalciporus piperatoides is found from NY to CA (Bessette), in the Pacific Northwest at least in WA and OR, (collections at the University of Washington, observed in OR by L. Norvell, pers. comm.). It appears on foray lists from BC where it is much less common than Chalciporus piperatus.
EDIBILITY
unknown (Bessette)
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
Chalciporus piperatus 1) does not turn blue, 2) its taste is more rapidly and strongly peppery, 3) its flesh is somewhat brighter in color, 4) the fresh spores lack a fleeting amyloid reaction, and 5) revived tube trama lacks a fleeting amyloid reaction, (Smith). C. piperatus has tubes not staining bluish and spore deposit brown rather than olive, (Trudell).Habitat
single, scattered, or in groups on ground under conifers or hardwoods, (Bessette), fall
Status Information
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Boletus chrysenteron (Bull.) Fr. (misapplied name)
Boletus piperatoides A.H. Sm. and Thiers
Xerocomus chrysenteron (Bull.) Quel. (misapplied name)