Woods, especially of pine and in open places under or near pine trees. Very common.
The plant is generally gregarious and sometimes grows in circles, whence the name B. circinans Pers. Occasionally it is cespitose. The pileus is very variable in color—pinkish-gray, reddish-brown, yellowish-gray, tawny-ferruginous or brownish—and is sometimes obscurely spotted by the drying gluten. The flesh is rather thick and often almost white, except near the tubes, where it is tinged with yellow. The tubes are small, at first almost white or very pale-yellow, but they become dingy-ochraceous with age. The stem is generally short, stout and firm, whitish-pallid or yellowish, and often dotted to the base, though the glandules are more numerous and distinct on the upper part. Peck, Boleti of the U.S.
B. granulatus is of frequent and general occurrence. I have found it in the pine woods of New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and in West Virginia and Pennsylvania in mixed woods.
It is a late-growing species, appearing in September and continuing until frost.
All authors, with one exception (Gillet), give the species as edible. From frequent and copious testings, the writer vouches for its edibility and excellence. It bears favorable comparison with any of the late Boleti.
B. bre´vipes Pk.—brevis, short; pes, foot. Pileus thick, convex, covered with a thick, tough gluten when young or moist, dark chestnut color, sometimes fading to dingy-tawny, the margin inflexed. Flesh white or tinged with yellow. Tubes short, nearly plane, adnate or slightly depressed around the stem, small, subrotund, at first whitish becoming dingy-ochraceous. Stem whitish, not dotted or rarely with a few very minute inconspicuous dots at the apex, very short. Spores subfusiform, 7.5×3µ.
Pileus 1.5–2.5 in. broad. Stem .5–1 in. long, 3–5 lines thick.
Sandy soil in pine groves and woods. New England, Frost; New York, Peck.
The species is closely related to B. granulatus, from which it differs especially in its darker colored pileus, more copious gluten, shorter stem and the almost entire absence of granules from the tube mouths and stem. In the rare instances in which these are present they are extremely minute and inconspicuous. The plant occurs very late in the season and the pileus appears as if enveloped in slime and resting stemless on the ground. Peck, Boleti of the U.S.
Specimens found in pine woods of New Jersey, identified by Professor Peck. Lambertville, N.J., C.S. Ridgway; Haddonfield, N.J., T.J. Collins; Pleasantville, Isaac F. Shaner.