A patch of it is treasure trove.
B. lepro´sus Pk.—leprous. Pileus very convex, glabrous, soft like kid, cinereous-yellowish-drab or pale-brown, slowly changing to whitish where bruised, the cuticle separable. Flesh white, changing to yellowish. Tubes yellow or brownish-yellow, changing to greenish where wounded, plane, depressed around the stem, short, small, stuffed when young. Stem solid, enlarged at the top, lemon-yellow. Spores oblong-fusiform, 12.5–15×5µ.
Pileus 4–6 in. broad. Stem 2 in. long, 1 in. thick.
Mixed woods. North Carolina, C.J. Curtis.
This plant is remarkable for the whitish or leprous spots which the pileus assumes, even from being handled, and for the change in the color of the flesh and tubes. The stem is very thick at the top but tapers downward. Peck, Boleti of the U.S.
Boletus affinis.
B. affi´nis Pk.—related. Pileus convex above or nearly plane, subglabrous, reddish-brown or chestnut color fading to tawny or dingy-ochraceous with age. Flesh white. Tubes plane or convex, adnate or slightly depressed around the stem, at first white and stuffed, then glaucous-yellow or subochraceous, changing to rusty-ochraceous where wounded. Stem subequal, even, glabrous, colored like or paler than the pileus. Spores rusty-ochraceous, 9–12×4–5µ.
The Related boletus belongs to the tribe of Boleti known as Edules because of their especially esculent character, but it differs from the general character of the tribe in having its tubes not at all or but slightly shortened around the stem and in its stem not being thickened or bulbous at the base. The species is quite variable in the color of the cap, which is generally darker in young plants, paler in old ones. It may be brown, reddish-brown or blackish-brown when young, but is more or less tinged with tawny or ochraceous when old. It is smooth and even or minutely tomentose and sometimes slightly rugose. In wet weather the margin of the cap sometimes curves upward, giving a very convex surface to the tubes. Sometimes the wounded flesh slowly assumes a yellowish hue. The peculiar rusty-ochraceous hue of the spores is also seen sometimes in the tubes of old specimens. As in many species, the flesh of old plants is more soft than that of young ones. The stem is quite variable and is often narrowed downward. It is sometimes very obscurely reticulated at the top.