Summary:
Features include 1) a dry, velvety cap that is dark brown to olive-brown or dark vinaceous brown, 2) white flesh that turns blue then reddish brown when exposed, 3) pores that are brown when young, 4) tubes that become blue when bruised or exposed, and 5) cap-colored stem that may be reticulate. Not all authors accept the synonymy used here. Differing species concepts may be involved as Singer (according to Bessette et al.) described Tylopilus porphyrosporus as a medium to large bolete growing at lower elevations in hardwood forests and mixed woods and having flesh that stains blue when exposed, and Tylopilus pseudoscaber as a small to medium bolete that grows at higher elevations in conifer woods and with flesh that does not stain blue when exposed (but in another source states slight blueing has occasionally been observed in T. pseudoscaber), (Bessette). Smith(35) on the other hand distinguishes T. porphyrosporus with pores pallid to grayish when young and flesh slowly becoming fuscous when cut from T. pseudoscaber with pores coffee brown when young and flesh staining blue then reddish when cut (while noting that the Fries species concept Boletus porphyrosporus that they are using does have flesh that turns blue). Tylopilus pacificus was originally described from Washington and is often regarded as a synonym too. Tylopilus olivaceobrunneus was originally described from Oregon (see under SIMILAR for different ideas about its status). By 2018 an attempt was being made to study these similar taxa and determine the status of entities on the west coast of North America.

Chemical Reactions:
cap cuticle stains mahogany-red with application of KOH and negative with FeSO4, flesh stains dull orange with application of KOH, green with FeSO4, (Bessette)

Odor:
pungent, clove-like or resembling coal tar when fresh, stem base sometimes with a strong odor of chlorine, (Bessette), sharp and rather pungent, strong, (Smith(35)), antiseptic-like (Miller)

Taste:
weakly bitter or mild (Bessette), mild (Smith(35)), bitter with an aftertaste (Miller)

Microscopic:
spores 12-18 x 6-7.5 microns, elliptic, smooth, pale brown, (Bessette), spores (12)14-18 x 6-7.5 microns, (occasional giant spores up to 27 microns long), narrowly elliptic, smooth, somewhat dextrinoid (tawny or more reddish) in Melzer''s reagent, pale earth-brown in KOH, lacking apical pore; basidia 4-spored, 45-50 x 9-15 microns, smoky brown in KOH, yellowish in Melzer''s reagent; pleurocystidia scattered, 50-65 x 10-16 microns, clavate-mucronate to fusoid-ventricose, usually with dark brown content when fresh, cheilocystidia similar to pleurocystidia or up to 30 microns wide in enlarged part, brown when fresh; cap cuticle "a collapsed trichodermium, the hyphae with elliptic to subclavate end-cells with the tips tapered to an acute to subacute apex", walls thin and nearly colorless, "the cells back from the terminal cell often curved, of equal diameter, merely yellowish in Melzer''s", the content of the hyphae colorless to yellowish in Melzer''s, no amyloid particles present in most fruitbodies in the cuticular hyphae; clamp connections absent, (Smith(35))

Spore Deposit:
dark reddish brown, (Bessette), distinctly reddish brown when moist, dark grayish brown when air-dried, (Smith(35))

Notes:
Porphyrellus porphyrosporus is found from eastern North America to the Pacific Northwest (Bessette), including MI (Smith(35), who is describing Pacific Northwest material), CA (Thiers, Phillips), and NS (Grund). It is found in WA (Trudell(1)). There are Paul Kroeger collections from BC labeled Tylopilus pseudoscaber at the University of British Columbia.

EDIBILITY

unknown (Bessette)

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Boletus pseudoscaber Secr.
Crucibulum laeve (Huds.) Kambly
Cyathus laevis DC
Porphyrellus pseudoscaber (Secr.) Singer
Tylopilus pseudoscaber (Secr.) A.H. Sm. and Thiers