Summary:
Features include 1) a viscid, smooth cap that is convex, sometimes with a small pointed umbo, the cap color ochraceous orange to reddish brown, 2) decurrent gills that are subdistant, broad, and buff to dull cinnamon, 3) a dry to moist stem that narrows toward the base, covered in its center part with thin fibrils, the stem color orange-buff flushed reddish, 4) a partial veil that is fibrous and dry, leaving a thin, superior, ring zone of hairs that soon disappear, 5) growth under conifers especially pines, 6) a smoke gray to black spore deposit, 7) long-elliptic, smooth, inamyloid spores, and 8) thin-walled cystidia. O.K. Miller, who gave a description of Chroogomphus rutilus as a North American as well as European species in 1964, decided in 2003 that the North American material should be included in the concept of Chroogomphus ochraceus (Kauffman) O.K. Miller, leaving Chroogomphus rutilus (Schaeff.) O.K. Mill. as a European species, (Miller(19)). The dark mahogany cap with variants to light ochraceous apparently represent variation within one species, with both forms being found in Europe (as C. rutilus) and in North America (as C. ochraceus), (Miller(19)). A short description is included from Miller(14) (2006) of the combined North American C. ochraceus, but both Miller(1) descriptions from 1964 are included for details. The description derived from Desjardin(6) follows the Miller(14) concept. In California, Chroogomphus appears to parasitize Suillus fuscotomentosus which is not plentifully documented to occur in the Pacific Northwest, so that different species of Chroogomphus may be involved.

Cap:
1.5-12cm across, convex, sometimes with a small, pointed umbo, margin incurved at first; ochraceous orange to reddish brown; smooth, viscid, (Miller(14)), 1.5-3(5)cm across, flat to slightly umbonate, margin incurved at first, disc slightly depressed around umbo; bright yellowish orange to ochraceous, center clouded with gray when old and finally a dull vinaceous; viscid, bald, shiny, (Miller(1) for C. ochraceus), 2.5-12cm across, obtuse to convex with inconspicuously pointed umbo, becoming flat or turbinate [top-shaped] or shallowly depressed with arched margin; ochraceous, vinaceous to dingy umber or vinaceous brown, when old vinaceous red; viscid, (Miller(1) as C. rutilus)

Flesh:
firm; "light salmon to pinkish near the cuticle to light yellowish near stipe base", (Miller(14)), ochraceous, abruptly turning wine-red at gills, gradually changing to vinaceous at base of stem, color in stem apex as in cap, gradually changing to "orange-vinaceous" or light ochraceous at base, (Miller(1) for C. ochraceus), gray to pinkish or rose near cap surface, light salmon to gray or light ochraceous near gills in some, dingy ochraceous to cream color elsewhere in cap, in stem ochraceous, more yellowish near middle part and correspondingly light yellowish near stem surface, base light yellow to very light ochraceous, (Miller(1) as C. rutilus)

Gills:
"decurrent, subdistant, broad"; buff to dull cinnamon, (Miller(14)), decurrent, close to subdistant, broad, 2 tiers of subgills; salmon to smoky ochraceous, finally red near stem; edges even, (Miller(1) for C. ochraceus), decurrent, close to subdistant, broad when old, many forked about one-third to two-thirds of distance to the cap; pale ochraceous, ochraceous-buff, dingy yellow-brown or dull cinnamon when young, (Miller(1) as C. rutilus), decurrent, 0.5-1.0cm broad, close; "ochraceous to pale orangish gray, becoming black" when old, (Desjardin)

Stem:
3.5-10(18)cm x 0.5-2.5cm, narrowing toward base; orange-buff flushed reddish; dry to moist, covered in center part with thin fibrils, (Miller(14)), 3-6cm x 0.4-0.8(1)cm, narrowing downward; yellowish orange to ochraceous, with tints of red to vinaceous brown or magenta, near base deep pinkish red to sordid and soon vinaceous where handled; lower two thirds sometimes viscid from veil remnants, (Miller(1) for C. ochraceus), 4.7-18cm x 0.5-2.5cm, narrowing towards base, solid; orange-buff becoming vinaceous when old, mycelium and base of stem cream, buff, or yellow; stem moist but not viscid, with a thin cover of fibrils from fibrillose veil near top, (Miller(1) as C. rutilus), 4-14cm x 0.5-3.0cm, cylindric in upper part, gradually narrowing downwards, solid; "ochraceous to salmon-orange, tawny, or orangish buff"; "dry, appressed-fibrillose", (Desjardin)

Veil:
partial veil "fibrous, dry, leaving a thin, superior, annular zone of hairs that soon disappears", (Miller(14)), partial veil fibrillose, sometimes leaving a thin layer of fibrils on upper stem, (Miller(1) as C. rutilus), "partial veil cobwebby, orange, evanescent, sometimes leaving a superior fibrillose zone", (Desjardin)

Odor:
not distinctive (Miller(14)), none (Miller(1) as C. rutilus), indistinct (Desjardin)

Taste:
pleasant (Miller(14)), mild (Miller(1) as C. rutilus), indistinct (Desjardin)

Microscopic spores:
spores 14-22 x 6.0-7.5 microns, long-elliptic, smooth, inamyloid, thick-walled; cystidia conspicuous above basidia, long-cylindric, thin-walled; cap tissue amyloid, (Miller(14)), spores 14-20 x 4.5-7 microns, elliptic in face view, subfusiform [somewhat spindle-shaped] in side view, inamyloid, light gray-brown to near colorless in KOH, ochraceous in Melzer''s reagent; basidia 30-41 x 6-8, clavate; cystidia [presumably on gills] 81-160 x 12-20 microns, narrowly clavate to cylindric, thin-walled, colorless in KOH but often with yellow-brown to rusty-brown incrusting material; in Melzer''s reagent "yellowish with dingy yellow incrusted material, in crushed mounts with rusty brown incrustations"; cap cuticle of filamentous hyphae 3-6 microns wide, "hyaline or with purple walls in KOH; in Melzer''s solution mostly hyaline but some hyphae amyloid (grayish purple), in crushed mounts with yellowish contents and light purple walls"; clamp connections at the base of buttons on the amyloid vegetative mycelium but not on fruitbody, (Miller(1) for C. ochraceus), spores 14-22 x 6-7.5 microns, elliptic in face view, somewhat fusiform [spindle-shaped] in side view, light gray-brown in KOH, light to medium ochraceous tawny in Melzer''s reagent; basidia 4-spored, 44-55 x 8-14 microns, clavate, colorless in KOH; cystidia [presumably on gills] 82-178 x 13-22 microns, narrowly fusiform, fusiform, narrowly clavate to cylindric, thin-walled, colorless in KOH with scattered incrustations, colorless in Melzer''s reagent but in crushed mounts light yellow brown; cap cuticle a pellicle of gelatinized hyphae, (2.4)5-7.5(8.4) microns wide, "hyaline in KOH, hyaline in Melzer''s solution, in crushed mounts hyaline to yellow with many yellow granules within"; clamp connections present on amyloid mycelium around base of fruiting body and rare to absent in mature fruitbody, (Miller(1) as C. rutilus), spores 15-20(24) x 5-7 microns, subfusiform in side view, narrowly elliptic in face view, "smooth, thin-walled"; "hymenial cystidia cylindrical to clavate or fusiform, thin-walled"; "tramal hyphae amyloid"; cap cuticle "a cutis of gelatinized hyphae", (Desjardin)

Spore deposit:
smoke gray to black (Miller(14)), smoke-black (Desjardin)

Notes:
Miller(1) examined collections as C. ochraceus from ID, OR, MI - the North American distribution is given as "particularly the Pacific Northwest, Lake States, Northeast, and Canada", (Miller(1)). In addition, Miller(1) examined collections (as C. rutilus but later falling under C. ochraceus) from OR, CA, ID, MD, MI, and TN. There are collections of C. ochraceus from BC at Pacific Forestry Center (as Chroogomphus rutilus) and University of British Columbia (as Chroogomphus ochraceus and as C. rutilus).

EDIBILITY

yes (Miller(14), Desjardin(6))

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Gomphidius ochraceus Kauffman