A large, very bitter bolete of eastern hardwood forests. Its cap is purplish brown when young, fading to brown or cinnamon. The pores are whitish, then pinkish, then dingy brown, and the stem often has olive stains. It is a common source of disappointment for people hunting porcini.
Inedible because it is intensely bitter (Wikipedia; Horn's Boletes). No toxicity is reported, but a single specimen can make a dish of edible boletes inedible.
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Mycorrhizal with oaks, beech and other hardwoods (Horn also lists maple, oak-pine woods and hemlock); alone, scattered or in groups. Summer and fall (July-September).
Distribution
Widely distributed in North America east of the Rocky Mountains; also reported from a Mexican beech (Fagus mexicana) forest in Hidalgo (Wikipedia).
Characteristics
Cap: 5-15 cm (Horn gives 8-30 cm), convex to nearly flat, dry, finely felty when young, purplish brown aging to brown or tan; young margin whitish. Pores: whitish, becoming pinkish then dingy brown, bruising pinkish to brownish; 2-3 per mm; tubes to 10 mm deep. Stem: 7-14 cm long, 1.5-4 cm thick, equal or club-shaped, whitish to brown, often with olive stains, bald or very finely reticulate near the apex. Flesh: thick, white, soft, unchanging. Taste: very bitter. Spore print: dull pinkish to reddish brown. Spores: 9-14 x 2.5-4 um, fusiform, smooth.
