Chalciporus piperatus

[ Basidiomycetes > Boletales > Boletaceae > Chalciporus . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

This drab little bolete has several features that combine to make it fairly easy to identify: dull reddish brown to pinkish tan colors; a brownish-reddish pore surface that bruises darker brown but not blue; bright to dull yellow basal mycelium on the stem; and a very peppery taste. It is almost always found under conifers, and is fairly widely distributed in North America.

Description:

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with conifers (perhaps rarely with hardwoods); growing alone, scattered, or gregariously; summer and fall; fairly widely distributed, at least in northern and western North America.

Cap: 2-5 cm (rarely larger, to 10 cm); convex, becoming broadly convex; sticky when fresh, but soon dry; smooth; dull reddish brown to dull pinkish tan, fading to tan.

Pore Surface: Cinnamon brown to reddish brown, becoming dull coppery reddish at maturity; bruising brown; usually with 1-2 pores per mm; tubes to 1 cm deep; often with wide pores near the stem that create fine lines at the stem apex. Specimens are sometimes collected with contorted pores that are almost gill-like.

Stem: 2-8 cm long; up to 1.5 cm thick; more or less equal; dry; solid; colored like the cap; smooth; base with bright to dull yellow mycelium.

Flesh: Yellowish to pinkish in the cap; brighter yellow in the stem; not staining on exposure, or staining brownish to grayish.

Odor and Taste: Odor not distinctive; taste strongly peppery.

Chemical Reactions: Cap surface gray to dark reddish brown with KOH; dull olive to dark reddish brown with ammonia; negative to greenish with iron salts. Flesh gray to purplish gray with KOH; negative to pinkish or purplish gray with ammonia; negative to greenish with iron salts.

Spore Print: Brown to reddish brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores 8-11 x 4-5 µ; smooth; subfusoid. Cystidia fusoid to fusoid-ventricose; to about 60 x 15 µ. Pileipellis a tangled layer of cylindric elements 10-20 µ wide; terminal elements with rounded to subacute apices.

Boletus piperatus and Suillus piperatus are synonyms.

REFERENCES: (Bulliard, 1790) Bataille, 1908. (Fries, 1821; Saccardo, 1888; Coker & Beers, 1943; Snell & Dick, 1970; Smith & Thiers, 1971; Thiers, 1975; Grund & Harrison, 1976; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1981; Arora, 1986; Phillips, 1991/2005; Lincoff, 1992; Both, 1993; Evenson, 1997; Barron, 1999; Bessette, Roody & Bessette, 2000; McNeil, 2006; Miller & Miller, 2006; Trudell & Ammirati, 2009.) Herb. Kuo 08140703, 08170802.

Further Online Information:

Boletus piperatus in Smith & Thiers, 1971
Chalciporus piperatus at MykoWeb
Boletus piperatus at Roger's Mushrooms

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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2007, December). Chalciporus piperatus. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/chalciporus_piperatus.html