Summary:
Features include 1) a reddish brown, dry cap that is minutely granular to fibrillose-scaly, 2) whitish flesh that with exposure turns purplish gray then blackish without an intervening reddish phase, 3) white pores that darken but do not become blue, 4) a stem with pallid scabers (fine scales) that become dark brown to black, the stem base sometimes turning blue, 5) growth under aspen or birch, and 6) brown spore deposit. |In addition to the type variety from CA, Thiers describes var. brunneum from CA with a young cap that is dark brown to reddish brown and more or less bald (as opposed to brick red to ferruginous and tomentose to fibrillose for the type variety when young), (Thiers(13)). |"The dark brown pileus when young with a tendency to fade somewhat with age and the dull, dark brown color when dried readily distinguish this variety from others that have been described." (Thiers(13)). |Smith(35) describes from MI var. luteopallidum with tubes that become yellowish before the darkening of maturity as well as several invalidly published forms. |Leccinum insigne is common in suitable habitat.

Chemical Reactions:
flesh stains bluish with application of FeSO4 (Bessette)

Odor:
not distinctive (Bessette)

Taste:
not distinctive (Bessette)

Microscopic:
spores 11-16 x 4-5 microns, subfusoid [somewhat spindle-shaped], smooth, yellowish; caulocystidia clavate to ventricose-mucronate, (Bessette), spores (11)13-16(18) x 4-6 microns, subfusoid to subcylindric, smooth, ochraceous in Melzer''s reagent, pale ochraceous in KOH, walls moderately thickened; basidia 4-spored, 29-34 x 8-12 microns, clavate to pear-shaped, colorless in KOH; hymenial cystidia scattered to numerous, 27-43 x 7-13 microns, clavate to clavate with elongated tapering apices, colorless to dark brown in KOH; cap cuticle a trichodermium of tangled hyphal tips, hyphae 4-7 microns wide, walls sometimes roughened, pigment globules not developing in Melzer''s reagent, "terminal cells with obtuse apices, or with tapered apices"; caulocystidia "29-39 x 10-14 microns, clavate to fusoid, dark brown in KOH, thin-walled"; clamp connections absent, (Thiers(1))

Spore Deposit:
dark yellow-brown to olive-brown (Bessette), brown (Thiers(1))

Notes:
Distribution includes CA (type variety and var. brunneum) and MI (var. luteopallidum). L. insigne is reported from WA and ID, (A. Parker, pers. comm.), BC (M. Beug pers. comm.), and MT (L. Evans, pers. comm.). The RANGE includes eastern Canada south to NJ, west to the northern Rocky Mountains, south to the Sierra Nevada of CA and the Southwest (Bessette).

EDIBILITY

reported by some authors including Bessette(3) as edible, but orange Leccinum species have been implicated in poisoning episodes

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Porphyrellus pseudoscaber (Secr.) Singer
Tylopilus pseudoscaber (Secr.) A.H. Sm. and Thiers