Suillus lakei (Murrill) A.H. Sm. and Thiers
western painted suillus
Suillaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
western painted suillus
Suillaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
Species Information
Summary:
Features include 1) a somewhat viscid cap covered until old with dry dark brown to reddish brown or orange brown scales and fibrils, 2) yellowish flesh that may stain weakly blue-green in stem base, 3) large yellow to yellow-brown, often radially elongated pores that stain brownish or reddish when bruised, 4) stem that may be obscurely reticulate and typically lacks dots, yellowish above the thin whitish to yellowish membranous annulus and yellowish to brownish below it (often like the cap), and 5) growth under Douglas-fir. Suillus lakei var. pseudopictus has a redder and more scaly cap with larger scales. Suillus lakei is common in the Pacific Northwest.
Odor:
not distinctive (Bessette), none (Smith)
Taste:
not distinctive (Bessette), none (Smith)
Microscopic:
spores 7-11 x 3-4 microns, subelliptic to slightly ventricose, smooth, pale yellow, (Bessette), spores (7)8-10(11) x 3-3.7(4) microns, subelliptic to subcylindric to slightly ventricose, smooth, yellowish to pale tawny in Melzer''s reagent, colorless to pale greenish yellow in KOH, thin-walled; basidia 2-spored and 4-spored, 28-36 x 10-12 microns, clavate, colorless; pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia numerous to abundant, 48-60 x 7-9 microns, cylindric, typically incrusted and staining dark brown in KOH, occasionally colorless, thin-walled, more often single along the sides of tubes but fascicled along tube mouths; cap cuticle "differentiated as an inner layer of gelatinous interwoven hyphae and an outer layer of incrusted to smooth hyphae which stain brownish-ochraceous in KOH"; clamp connections absent to very rare, (Smith), spores 8-11 x 3-4 microns, spindle-shaped to elliptic, (Arora)
Spore Deposit:
dull cinnamon (Bessette, Smith), cinnamon-brown to olive-brown (Miller)
Notes:
It is found in the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Northwest, south to CA, (Bessette). It has been reported from BC (in Redhead), and from MT (L. Evans, pers. comm.). Var. lakei is found in the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Northwest including WA, OR, ID, and WY, (Smith). Var. pseudopictus is found in the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Northwest, south to California and also reported from NJ and NY, (Bessette). The RANGE of var. pseudopictus includes WA and CA, (Smith).
EDIBILITY
yes (Bessette)
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
Suillus caerulescens has flesh in the stem base that stains blue-green more strongly, even in mature specimens, and cap is smoother and stickier, (Bessette). Suillus ponderosus can be difficult to distinguish if annulus is obliterated (colors overlap), but it is massive, with the cap practically bald and noticeably viscid, whereas Suillus lakei is not always strongly viscid and cap is scaly until older, (Smith). Suillus imitatus is bald, and has slightly wider spores, (Smith). The holotype of Suillus flavogranulatus A.H. Sm., Thiers, and O.K. Mill. Lloydia 28: 127-128. 1965 nests within Suillus lakei in the molecular study of Nguyen(3) so that its status as a species is questionable, despite the descriptions in Smith(36) and Bessette(3). The cap of Suillus flavogranulatus was abundant in one Idaho locality in 1964: the cap was described as bald, the cap color pallid becoming pale yellow to pale ochraceous, and the stem as "white, slowly becoming yellow and with numerous pinkish brown glandular dots" over the upper two thirds, the stem base slowly pinkish brown when cut, (Smith(36) who first thought it was a color variation of Suillus granulatus with abnormally large tube mouths). See also SIMILAR section of Suillus ampliporus and Suillus imitatus var. imitatus.Habitat
scattered or in groups on ground under conifers, especially Douglas-fir, (Bessette), scattered to gregarious, typically associated with Pseudotsuga (Douglas-fir), (Smith), prefers poor, exposed soil and often on roadbanks or in campgrounds, (Arora), confined to Douglas-fir (Thiers), spring, summer, and fall, (Miller), spring, summer, fall, winter
Status Information
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Hydnum fuscoindicum K.A. Harrison
Sarcodon fuscoindicus (K.A. Harrison) Maas Geest.