Boletus scaber.
One-half natural size.
B. sca´ber Fr.—scaber, rough. (Plate [CXVIII], fig. 4, p. 436.) Pileus convex, glabrous, viscid when moist, at length wrinkled or lined. Tubes free, convex, white, then sordid, their mouths minute, rotund. Stem solid, attenuated above, roughened with fibrous scales. Spores oblong-fusiform, snuff-brown, 14–18×4–6µ.
Pileus 1–5 in. broad. Stem 3–5 in. long, 3–8 lines thick.
Woods, swamps and open places. Very common and appearing through summer and autumn.
This may fairly be called our most common and variable species. It is recorded in nearly every local list of fungi. The pileus is convex, hemispherical or even subconical. It may be glabrous, minutely tomentose, subvelvety or squamulose. The flesh is white or whitish and sometimes slightly changeable where wounded. The tubes are generally rather long and with a rounded or convex surface. The stem is distinctly scabrous or roughened with small blackish-brown or reddish dots or scales, the ground color generally being whitish, grayish or pallid. The spores have been described as pale-brown and light-yellowish. When caught in a mass on white paper they appear to me to approach snuff-brown. The viscidity of the pileus is not always clearly discernible. Indeed the pileus is often quite as dry as in B. versipellis. When moistened by heavy rains it sometimes is smooth and clammy to the touch but scarcely viscid. Several varieties have been indicated which are expressive of the variations in the color of the pileus.
Var. testa´ceus. Pileus brick-red.
Var. auranti´acus. Pileus orange or orange-red.
These appear to connect this species and B. versipellis.
Var. aluta´ceus. Pileus yellowish-tan color.