Summary:
Features include 1) a reddish to brown viscid fibrillose cap, 2) a hard, tough stem with dark scabers, and 3) growth with manzanita and madrone. This is one of the species that was formerly known under the name Leccinum aurantiacum. Note that Both(1) describes the staining of the flesh as changing to fuscous with red tones but neither Thiers nor Bessette nor Arora describe red tones.

Chemical Reactions:
flesh stains pale gray with FeSO4, tubes pale red with KOH then blackening, (Thiers)

Odor:
not distinctive (Bessette), mild (Thiers(13))

Taste:
not distinctive (Bessette), mild (Thiers(13))

Microscopic:
spores 13-19 x 3-5 microns, spindle-shaped to elliptic, smooth, (Arora), spores 13-17 x 4-6 microns, fusoid to subcylindric [almost cylindric], smooth, ochraceous, (Bessette), spores 13-17 x 4-5.5 microns, (var. angustisporum distinguished only by spores that reach only 3-4 microns wide and often average 1-2 microns longer), fusoid to subelliptic to subcylindric, inequilateral, smooth, moderately thick-walled; basidia 4-spored, 27-32 x 6-9 microns, clavate to pyriform; hymenial cystidia often obscure, scattered, 23-32 x 4-6 microns, fusoid to clavate with narrow elongated apices, colorless in KOH; cap cuticle a trichodermium of free tangled hyphal tips, hyphae 8-12 microns wide, some disarticulation of cells, walls smooth to sometimes obscurely rough, pigment globules forming in cap cuticle hyphae when mounted in Melzer''s, terminal cells elongated and often noticeably tapered; clamp connections absent, (Thiers(1))

Spore Deposit:
brown (Arora, Bessette), cinnamon-brown (Thiers(13))

Notes:
In CA it is "by far the most common Leccinum in the coastal forests of California where it occurs under manzanita and madrone" (Thiers(13) with Leccinum in italics). It also occurs in OR, (Bessette), and is reported from WA (M. Seidl, pers. comm.) and BC (O. Ceska, pers. comm.).

EDIBILITY

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

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Morchella americana Clowez et C. Matherly var. elongata Clowez
Morchella esculentoides M. Kuo