Suillus luteus (L.:Fr.) Roussel |
The cap is dark brown (chocolate brown, chestnut brown then rusty), more rarely yellowish-brown, with purple tones due to the thick viscosity, very fleshy, of hemispherical then convex shape, eventually flat, often slightly umbonate. The cap surface is slimy when damp, shiny (or matt) when dry, smooth or finely radially striate with age, thick and entirely peelable. The cap margin is smooth, with veil remnants (young specimens). The stem is firm, full, rather thick and short, grainy near the tubes. It is of more or less equal diameter, or slightly swollen at the base. Its colour is straw-yellow, with brownish dots near the top. It is pale when young, getting browner with age. It holds a membranous ring, totally connecting the stem to the edge of the cap (hiding the tubes in the youth). The ring is ascending, whitish but often tinted with purple, and eventually turning brown and stuck to the stem as a blackish film. This ring can disappear totally at maturity.. The flesh is thick, tender at first in young specimens, then soft and very spongy in the cap, while it becomes more fibrous in the stem. It is white to pale yellow, sometimes vinaceous in the stem base, unchanging to air; its taste is mild to slightly acidic; the odour is weak and pleasant; The tubes are adnate or slightly decurrent, thin, short (7-12 mm). They are lemon yellow then yellow-olive to brownish. The pores are large, more or less round, rather angular/polygonal, grey then blackish brown, turning red then black when pressed. The spore print is clay-brown to ochre-brown. It grows in coniferous woods and their edge, grassy areas, on both low and high ground, on a rather indifferent soil, essentially with two-needle pines: Scots pines, black pines, etc. Less frequently with larches, spruce, fir and Douglas pines in the mountains, and sometimes with birch. The fruiting period takes place from June to December.
Distinctive features : slimy, chocolate to chestnut brown cap, with purple shades; stem with large ring; yellow pores; yellowish-white flesh, unchanging when exposed to air; with Scots pines Suillus luteus is occasional and widely present in the forest of Rambouillet, and is frequent, more generally speaking . | ||
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page updated on 14/01/18