Snipe Wood with the Field Club

Concentrating first on the Boletes, 

Imleria badia, the Bay Bolete.

The first one we saw was the Bay Bolete, notable because of its often notably darker brown and matte to dry polished cap - not normally viscid and almost entirely under Pines as in Suillus bovinus, the lighter warmer brown of the Bovine Bolete. The cap is difficult to peel. 

A moderately sized medium-large Bolete, with a cap 5 - 15 cm across. The stipe is reddish-brown narrow vertical lines over the paler background, no reticulation except maybe at the apex, getting streakier as it gets older. Stripes can look surprisingly reddish. May be a pale to whitish zone at the apex and possibly the base, where there may be some whitish mycelium.

The pores are white to pale yellowish, yellow-green to olive when older, bruising a rather dull greyish blue, perhaps somewhat slowly. 

When cut you may get a bit of blue in the flesh and maybe a little bit of wine-red immediately under the cap. Or bluish in the cap flesh, slight reddish-brown in older specimens, not blue in the stem, from the images on the internet.  

Generally found under conifers or Beech in the South (maybe almost anything). However on occasion it can be a lighter much more orange brown, quite viscid when wet. Spores are olive-brown. 

A drop of ammonium hydroxide solution turns the cap cuticle a greenish to bluish colour. Application of ferrous sulphate solution causes the flesh to stain a dull bluish-green, while the pores turn golden brown with a drop of dilute potassium hydroxide

 

Xerocomellus pruinatus, the Matte Bolete, seems most likely - note the slight red edging around the brown "frosted" cap, and the red in the wound under the cap (not all agree on this), which most Xerocomellus species show, such as Xerocomellus cisalpinus (flesh blues up very strongly) and the Red Cracking Bolete, Xerocomellus chrysenteron (cap breaks up a lot). There is also Xerocomellus porosporus, (grey-yellow stem, very little red if any, stem blackens on cutting) Should have checked its tubes for a xerocomellid structure! Flesh should only turn slightly blue when bruised, if at all, but pores may bruise blue rapidly and strongly, especially on older specimens.

The cap colour is very variable indeed, many different browns to black. The stipe is notably strong - n.b. the Slate Bolete from Hever Castle. 

The pores, tubes, stipe and flesh tend to be a bright yellow, although the outside of the stipe reddens up, perhaps as the fruiting body gets older.  

Associated quite often with Beech.

Tricholomas.

The coal-gas one and the soapy one and the Birch one.

Tricholoma fulvum, The Birch Knight (although there is at least one whitish one as well), note the darker centre to the cap and the sulcate (ridged) edge to the Pileus.

Common and widespread. Should have yellow flesh in the stem, and it did of course. Mealy smell.