Spruce Bolete

Leccinum piceinum are starting to arise along with the white matsutakes which I showed earlier tonight.

This gotta be the easiest of red capped Leccinums to identify since it only grows under conifers and usually in thick moss.

It also has some loose cuticle material hanging from the cap margin which aids in identifying this one, though there are other red capped Leccinums with similar loose hanging cap edges though they will be growing near birch or poplar trees.

Spruce Bolete is considered a good edible if you only eat the caps and cook them thoroughly , it also drys well which makes it more flavourful.

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White Matsutake grounds

Yes it’s that time of the year, time to check my favorite White Matsutake grounds. I noticed some newly emerging Suillus cavipes as I started onto the path which made me suspect I was a little to early especially since it was dry this week, but there they were a few nice smaller Matsutakes and at least one group of the larger ones.

Most of the mushrooms were in needle duff very close to conifer tree  trunks.

Here is the above mushroom lifted from the duff, they were more difficult to remove intact today due to the dryness.

Another one deep in the duff.

This one’s stem is thicker and still it needed lots of wiggling to lift it without snapping the stem.

Large mushrooms with wetter caps and stems in moss.

This was a nice start to the White Matsutake season in my area. I’m going to do a couple small post on some other mushroom I found in these woods as well tonight as they were at their best. ciao