Red aspen bolete

How to recognise it: red aspen bolete

1. 1

   Orange-red cap with overhanging cuticle

2. 2

   Whitish stem with scales (white → rusty)

3. 3

   Flesh darkens when cut

4. 4

   Grows with aspens

Description

Cap

3–15(20) cm across, orange-red to brick-red; the cap cuticle overhangs the tubes at the margin as a thin membrane.

Tubes and pores

Tubes greyish with an olive tinge; pores fine, whitish, then grey-ochre to olive.

Stem

Whitish, covered with scales: white at first, with age orange, rusty to blackish; long remaining white at the apex. The background at the base is sometimes bluish.

Flesh

White, thick, firm; darkens when cut. In older specimens fibrous in the stem, soft in the cap.

Smell and taste

Taste mild, smell indistinct.

Where and when it grows

Forests and scrub, always near aspen (according to Polish sources); fairly common.

Most often with: aspen, poplar

Where are conditions good today?

Look-alikes: what it can be mistaken for

• 

  Brown birch bolete Edible low risk

  The brown birch bolete has a brown cap and black scales on the stem, and grows under birch. Edible. Not in this atlas: Leccinum versipelle (orange birch bolete; under birches, scales black from youth) – edible.

In the kitchen

Stewing, frying, drying, pickling (keeps a pale colour in vinegar). Turns black during cooking – adding vinegar prevents this. Can be parboiled and frozen.

Protection and sale

• Species protection: the species is not protected.
• Sale: the species is on the list of mushrooms approved for sale (it may be sold only with a mushroom inspector’s certificate). On the Ministry of Health (MZ) list as “koźlarz czerwony (all varieties) – Leccinum rufum”.

Where you may pick mushrooms →