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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.
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).
Cap: 6-15.5cm, convex, becoming broadly convex to flat when old; fibrils orange-buff to reddish or brownish on pale yellow to pale orange ground color, dry to slightly viscid, fibrillose to floccose-scaly, becoming nearly bald when old; margin typically appendiculate [with hanging veil remnants], var. pseudopictus "covered with a dense layer of conspicuous, flattened to somewhat erect, brick-red to reddish brown fibrils and scales", (Bessette), 6-15(20)cm, flat-convex, becoming broadly convex to flat or with margin uplifted; ground color pale yellow when young and dingy ochraceous when old, at first with superficial reddish to orange-buff or brownish scales, surface usually appearing somewhat streaky; viscid beneath the scales, finally becoming more or less bald, (Smith), "reddish-brown to brick-red to pinkish or tawny fibrils or fibrillose scales on a yellow to dingy orange or tan background", (Arora)
Flesh: "yellowish, unchanging or staining pinkish when exposed", not turning blue in cap, but stem base of young specimens "usually staining weakly blue-green (mature specimens often do not stain)", (Bessette), thick; yellowish; in stem pallid yellowish when young, unchanging or staining greenish in lower part when injured (fresh material), base often more or less cinnamon brown when old and old specimens often not showing greenish or blue when injured, (Smith)
Pores: 1-2.5mm, angular, often radially elongated, yellow to yellow-brown or ocher, "staining reddish to brown when bruised", not turning blue; tube layer 0.5-1.2cm thick, adnate to subdecurrent, (Bessette), 1-2.5mm radially, when old large and angular, staining brownish when bruised; tube layer typically shallow (0.5-1cm thick), broadly adnate to decurrent, dingy ochraceous when young, (Smith)
Stem: 6-12cm x 1-3cm, nearly equal or widening downward with a narrowed base, solid; yellow above the annulus, dull yellow to brownish below the annulus, sometimes with reddish streaks; dry, may be obscurely reticulate at top, typically lacking glandular dots; "partial veil floccose, whitish to yellowish, usually leaving a thin superior annulus", (Bessette), 6-12cm x 1-4cm at top, widening downward and then narrowing at base, solid; bright yellow above annulus and yellow below it but soon brownish from handling, or glandular dots present; superior thin membranous annulus (or veil remnants), (Smith), 3-8(12)cm x 1-3(4)cm, more or less equal, dry, solid; yellow above ring, usually with reddish to brown streaks in lower part; veil "white or becoming cap color, dry, usually forming a fibrillose ring or ragged zone on stalk, but sometimes disappearing", (Arora), younger specimens bruise slightly green or bluish, (Phillips)
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)
Habitat / Range
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
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.
