Aspen Bolete

Leccinum insigne

Edible, upsets some people

The aspen bolete is an orange-capped Leccinum, a scaber stalk, that grows with aspen across northern North America and the Rocky Mountains. It is listed as edible, but orange-capped Leccinums have caused gastrointestinal poisonings, especially in the Rockies.

Leccinum insigne

Photo coming

The tell

An orange to reddish-brown cap on a whitish stem covered in small dark scabers, under aspen.

Field marks

What to look at

Cap, underside and stem show in a photo. The spore print does not, and it is often the deciding check.

Cap
Convex, flattening with age, 2 to 6 inches across. Orange to orange-brown or reddish brown, dry, often with a small flap of tissue hanging from the edge.
Underside
Pores instead of gills. Whitish to buff when young, becoming olive-buff, bruising olive-brown.
Stem
Long and fairly thick, whitish, covered in small, rough scales called scabers that start pale and darken to brown or black with age. No ring.
Flesh
White, slowly darkening to purplish gray or grayish black when cut.
Spore print
Brown to yellowish brown.
Size
Cap 2 to 6 inches (5 to 15 cm); stem 3 to 6 inches (8 to 15 cm) tall.

Where and when

Where and when it grows

Habitat
On the ground under quaking aspen and bigtooth aspen, and sometimes birch, in mixed forests and aspen stands.
Grows on
Soil, near the roots of aspen.
Season
Summer through early fall.
Range
Northern North America from the Northeast and Great Lakes across Canada to Alaska, and south through the Rocky Mountains.

Lookalikes

What the aspen bolete gets confused with

Each card says how to tell the two apart.

  1. Other orange-capped Leccinum species

    Several orange-capped Leccinum species grow with aspen, birch and conifers and are hard to separate without microscopes. As a group they have been involved in gastrointestinal poisonings in North America.

  3. Compare side by side

Edibility

What the field guides say

Edible, upsets some people

Field guides list the aspen bolete as edible when thoroughly cooked. The same guides record gastrointestinal poisonings from orange-capped Leccinum species in North America, many from the Rocky Mountain region, and some cases involved undercooked mushrooms. The species involved are often not identified precisely.

This page states what field guides record. It is not advice to eat, taste or handle anything, and a photo cannot settle edibility. If someone has eaten a wild mushroom that may be toxic, call poison control (1-800-222-1222 in the US) right away, before symptoms start: the deadliest species act hours later.

FAQ

Questions about the aspen bolete

Is the aspen bolete poisonous?

Field guides list it as edible when thoroughly cooked, but orange-capped Leccinum species have caused vomiting and diarrhea in some people, particularly in the Rocky Mountains. Some of those cases involved undercooked mushrooms.

What are scaber stalks?

Scaber stalks are boletes in the genus Leccinum and its relatives. Their stems are covered in small, rough, raised scales called scabers, which usually darken to brown or black as the mushroom ages.

Where does the aspen bolete grow?

On the ground under aspen across northern North America and through the Rocky Mountains, from summer into early fall.

Sources

Where these facts come from

  2. Leccinum insigne

    Index Fungorum

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