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Family:

Boletaceae (Basidiomycota)

Primary Citation:

New Leccinum species from Costa Rica
Kew Bull. 54: 747-753. 1999

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Type Specimens:

Specimen 1: Isotype -- R. E. Halling

Description:

Latin Diagnosis: Pileus rugosus, foveatus vel areolatus, hyphis pileipellis cellulosis, trama stipitis ab initium insuper alba tum rosacea tum rubroaurantia, subter atrolazulinascens. Sub Quercus in montibus Cordillera Talamanca Costa Ricae. Holotypus: Costa Rica. La Chonta, S of Interamerican Highway toward Cerro Chonta, 7 June 1994, Halling 7239 (USJ).

Description: Pileus 2-6(-8) cm broad, convex to plano-convex, dry to moist, sometimes viscid in wet weather, even at first then rugulose, entire but soon areolate, sometimes heavily rugulose wrinkled to pitted to finely rugulose areolate, becoming deeply areolate cracked with age and/or in dry weather, Vandyke brown (6E-F6-5 to 5E5) to brownish gray (6F8) at first, soon cocoa brown (6E6) or remaining Vandyke brown with age, lacking sterile appendiculate margin. Flesh white, slowly staining pink to reddish orange in the pileus, changing quickly to dark blue in the stipe, up to 8 mm thick, with mild odor and taste. Tubes adnexed to depressed to deeply depressed around the stipe, up to 1.5 cm long, yellowish white (4A2) at first, then brownish orange (5C4-3) to light brown (6D5), changing to avellaneous when exposed; pores concolorous, up to 1 mm broad, staining a dark reddish brown when bruised. Stipe 4-14 cm long, (4-)10-20 mm broad, ±equal to subclavate to clavate, dry, white with fine gray scabers at first, soon black and sometimes coalescing into a reticulum toward the base, finely subpruinose ridged above, with white mycelium at base becoming blue when picked; interior white, solid, changing to pink to pinkish brown above and deep to dark blue (21E-F8) in the base. NH4: pale brown on pileus, bright grass green on blue stained areas. KOH: yellow to orange brown on pileus.

: Basidiospores 17.5-22.4 ´ 4.9-6.3 mm, (n = 20, x¯ = 19.4 ´ 5.5mm, Q¯ = 3.5), subfusoid to elongate-ellipsoid, smooth, thin-walled, inamyloid. Basidia 25-34 ´ 8-12 mm, 4-sterigmate, clavate, hyaline, inamyloid. Hymenial cystidia fusiform to lageniform, 30-70 ´ 10-20 mm, smooth, thin-walled. Hymenophoral trama bilateral, inamyloid, with hyphae 4-8 mm broad. Pileus trama interwoven, inamyloid, with hyphae up to 20 mm broad, smooth and thin-walled. Pileipellis a hymeniform layer several cells in depth, composed of spherical to subisodiametric cells, rarely subcylindric, up to 75 mm broad, smooth, thin-walled, hyaline or with brown pigment in the wall. Stipitipellis vertically oriented, composed of parallel hyphae, giving rise to clusters of caulocystidia, subfusoid to clavate to subclavate, rarely lageniform, 30-100 ´ 9-20 mm, often with brown pigment content. Clamp connections absent.

Paratypes: COSTA RICA. Puntarenas: Upper Río Burú and R. Bellavista, 17-2500 m, Aug 1983, Gómez 21453, 21580 (F). San José: Villa Mills, C.A.T.I.E. Experimental Forest of Villa Mills, 9/33'3"N, 83/40'55"W, 2880 m, 8 Nov 1993, Halling 7148 (NY, USJ), 25 Nov 1993, Halling 7197 (NY, USJ), 22 June 1994, Halling 7335 (NY, USJ), 22 Nov 1995, Mueller 5377 (F, USJ), 10 June 1997, Halling 7719 (NY, USJ). Cartago: La Chonta, Sep 1982, Gómez 18453 (F), 17 June 1983, Singer B14335 (F), 1 Jul 1983 Gómez 18171 (F). San José: La Chonta, S of Interamerican Highway toward Cerro Chonta, 9/41'58"N, 83/56'31"W, 2400 m, 17 June 1983, Singer 14339 (F), 10 June 1994, Halling 7269 (NY, USJ), 19 June 1994, Halling 7296 (NY, USJ), 6 June 1996, Halling 7627 (NY, USJ). Empalme, 1.1 km E of La Perla, Gómez 20622, 20628, 20634 (F). Jardín de Dota, 3.5 km W of Interamerican Highway at Empalme, 9/42'52"N, 83/58'28"W, 2220 m, 1 Jul 1983, Gómez 18169, 20597 (F), 5 June 1996, Halling 7617 (NY, USJ). San Gerardo de Dota, Albergue de Montaña, Savegre, ±5 km SW of Cerro de la Muerte, 9/33' 2"N, 83/48'27"W, 2350 m, 19 Oct 1994, Halling 7392 (NY, USJ); 1.5 km from Interamerican Highway on road to San Gerardo de Dota, 9/35'47"N, 83/47'55"W, 2860 m, 24 June 1995, Halling 7475 (NY, USJ), 8 June 1996, Halling 7647, 7648 (NY, USJ).

Habit, habitat, and distribution: Solitary to gregarious under Quercus copeyensis, Q. costaricensis and possibly Q. seemannii in the Cordillera Talamanca.

Commentary: The flesh is white at first when exposed, then becomes pink to reddish orange in the pileus and stipe apex, in mid-stipe the change is to a greenish blue and a deep, dark blue in the base. These oxidation reactions appear to be consistent for this Leccinum. The pileus color seems to vary from a caramel to dark gray brown and may be more or less rugulose depending on the individual collection. In a recent monograph of European Leccinums (Lannoy and Estades 1995), the Costa Rican entity comes closest to L. variicolor Watling in subsect. Pseudoscabra because of the pileus color and staining reactions of the flesh. However, that species is restricted to an association with Betula and possesses only cylindrical elements in the pileipellis. Color images of this taxon can be found at http://www.nybg.org/bsci/res/hall/vari.html.