White Birch Bolete (Leccinum holopus)

Leccinum holopus

Boggy sphagnum birch woods, less often mixed forests. Summer, autumn.

Fruiting bodies small. Cap 3—7 cm across, when young hemispherical, later convex-flattened, greyish, most often with a yellowish-bluish or greenish tinge. Tubes white. Stem 7-10 (12)x1-2 (3) cm, the colour of the cap, fibrous, scaly. Flesh white, the colour does not change when cut. Characteristic features: the base of the stem turns green; grows in boggy places. Grows in boggy pine forests with birch and in fens. Edible, not rare. 16 species of the Leccinum genus have been recorded in Lithuania; all are edible, some of them rare, and therefore not important from a practical point of view. All Leccinum boletes and birch boletes are home and food for mycetophages. Jays, roe deer and other forest dwellers feast on these mushrooms.