Strobilomyces strobilaceus
Strobilomyces strobilaceus, also called Strobilomyces floccopus and commonly known as old man of the woods, is a species of fungus in the family Boletaceae.
The fruit bodies are characterized by soft, dark scales on the cap surface. The species is native to Eurasia and North America.
Taxonomy
Strobilomyces strobilaceus is classified in the section Strobilomyces of the genus Strobilomyces. Species in this section are characterized by having spores that may be either smooth or with short spines or warts, ridges or reticulations. The ornamentation is reduced or absent in the suprahilar region—a depressed area near the hilar appendage.It was first described scientifically by the Italian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in 1770 as a species of Boletus.
Description
The caps of the fruit bodies are between wide, with a convex shape and a villous, involute margin. The cap surface is covered with tuft-like, dark grey to brown erect scales. The stipe is up to long and thick. It is coloured like the cap and has a woolly surface and a thick, ascending annulus or merely bands of colour from the partial veil. The pores on the underside of the cap are angular, light grey and turning blackish with age. The flesh is thick and initially white, but stains pink; the stains will turn blackish.The dark brown to black spores are 9–15 by 8–12 μm, short elliptic and are covered with a mesh-like ornament. The spore print is blackish.