Hever Castle - The Slate Bolete, Leccinum duriusculum

Just across the flat bridge in front of the main entrance to the castle itself there was a bank with a range of oaks and two Populus species. Under them were a couple of Leccinum fruiting bodies, so my first thought was the Slate or Poplar Bolete, Leccinum duriusculum, and I think I was able to more or less confirm that, once I got it home.

 One factor that threw me a bit was the nut-brown of the pilei, less usual for this species I think, as greys or lighter browns are often mentioned but this brown is still seen in a number of credible images. It is also worth noting that we are now in October, the end of the season for this particular Bolete, and perhaps this has some sort of impact.

The surface of the stipe was white, but fairly nearly completely covered with blackish squamules. 

The tubes and pores were buff coloured, at least by now. These contrasted with the initial white of the flesh, both of the cap and the stipe. Once cut, the flesh of the main upper part of the stipe slowly (6 minutes onwards) turned the expected violaceous-black, so that should rule out the look-alike Leccinum scabrum.

There was a hint of blue in the dark grey of the broken base of the stipe, and then about 12 hours after cutting a small clear blue patch appeared temporarily (see last photo, above), but no more than that. Rather more concerning maybe was no obvious sign of the intermediate pink that Andy Overall and others report before the dark grey takes over in the upper parts, but there was perhaps the tiniest hint of pink and of course it did look "violaceous", not just grey, so perhaps that is more of a variation in timing - hopefully. Factors that reassured me were the very obvious "solid" nature of the stipes noted as I picked the specimen and also I think the caps, the creamy colour of the pores and tubes contracting with the pure white of the flesh of both the cap and stipe. together with the grey colour of the damaged pores as opposed to the "tea" presumably browner, colour expected for Leccinum scabrum.