Leccinum discolor
Mich. Botan. 5: 152. 1966.
Common Name: none
For description see Smith et al. & 'California Mushrooms'.
Scattered to gregarious in soil under aspens in riparian areas; uncommon, fruiting in fall at high elevations in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Edible.
Leccinum discolor can be recognized by a cinnamon-brown to auburn cap fringed with flaps of cuticular tissue, context tissues that become pink or reddish gray, then gray on exposure, and growth under aspens at high elevations. Montane specimens have been misidentified as Leccinum aurantiacum, a European species that differs in possessing pileipellis hyphae with brown cytoplasmic globules in Melzer’s reagent and has a wider range of hardwood associates. For a comparison with other aspen-associated leccinums, see Leccinum brunneum.
Bessette, A.E., Roody, W.C. & Bessette, A.R. (2000). North American Boletes: A Color Guide to the Fleshy Pored Mushrooms. Syracuse University Press: Syracuse, NY. 400 p.
Smith, A.H., Thiers, H.D. & Watling, R. (1966). A Preliminary Account of the North American Species of Leccinum, Section Leccinum. Michigan Botanist 5(3A): 131-179. (Protologue)
Thiers, H.D. (1971). California Boletes. IV. The Genus Leccinum. Mycologia 63(2): 261-276.
Thiers, H.D. (1975). California Mushrooms--A Field Guide to the Boletes. Hafner Press: New York, NY. 261 p.