The boletes of Michigan, by Alexander H. Smith and Harry D. Thiers.

EDIBILITY

411

Tylopilus
Many species in this genus are inedible simply because of the
bitter taste, a feature more widely prevalent among the species of this
genus than in any other. Those without a bitter taste are likely to be
quite desirable because of their thick, tender flesh. This and the large
size of the basidiocarps of many species stimulates the collector's interest. Our best species is B. indecisus.
1. Stipe base bright yellow, surface above this furfuraceous to punctate with
pinkish ornamentation at first, pink often showing prominently on the
cap..................................... (*) T. chromapes
1. Not as above....................................... 2
2. Cap dark olive-brown to gray-brawn; spore deposit color in the
chocolate-colored series (and the tubes at maturity dark dingy grayish
brown to reddish brown)........................... 3
2. Cap dark vinaceous-brown to various shades of dingy cinnamon to
dull orange-brown; spore deposit vinaceous to vinaceous-cinnamon
(the tubes and pores showing this at maturity)...................... 6
3. Pore edges cinnamon to dark coffee-brown when immature...T. pseudoscaber
3. Pore edges not differently colored from the sides.................... 4
4. Tubes when young (before being colored by spores) weakly yellow........................................ T.cyaneotinctus
4. Tubes white to pallid or grayish at first............................. 5
5. Stipe with a short pseudorhiza (root).................. T. umbrosus
5. Stipe not rooting..... see T. sordidus, T. fumosipes, and T. porphyrosporus
6. Taste bitter, stipe reticulate at least at apex....................... 7
6. Not as above.............................. 9
7. Cap white, surface wrinkled like parchment paper........ (-) T. intermedius
7. Not as above....................................... 8
8. Cap and stipe violaceous when young; stipe reticulate only near the
apex............................... () T. plumbeoviolaceus
8. Not as above............................. (-) T. felleus and variants
9'. Taste bitter, stipe not reticulate, young cap dark vinaceous-brown...................................(-) T. rubrobrunneus
9. Taste mild, stipe at apex scarcely reticulate or reticulum extending down
the stipe a short distance........................... (*) T. indecisus
(*) Leccinum
Since all the known species in the state which have been tested
have been found edible, we recommend them on the basis that if
poisonous species occur, we should have learned about it by this time