Chalciporus piperatoides

Pileus
Cap 2.5-6.0 cm broad, convex, broadly convex in age; margin decurved, becoming nearly plane at maturity; surface sticky when moist, otherwise dry, matted-tomentose, chamois-like, areolate in dry weather; color variable: ochre, rusty-brown, tan to cinnamon-brown, often tinged vinaceous; context up to 1.5 cm thick, pale tawny-buff, soft, bluing erratically; odor: fruity-aromatic; taste: peppery.

Hymenophore
Pores 1-2/mm at maturity, dull ochre-brown to cinnamon-brown, sometimes appearing boletinoid, bruising blue; tubes up to 0.5 cm long, bluing when injured, depressed at the stipe.

Stipe
Stipe 3.0-6.0 cm long, 0.8-1.5 cm thick, solid, slender, straight, more or less equal; surface of apex minutely scurfy, vinaceous to dull tawny over a pallid ground color, yellowish at the base, the latter conspicuous with yellow mycelium; context lemon-yellow.

Spores
Spores 7.5-9.0 x 3.5-4.0 microns, spindle-shaped in face-view; spore print olive.

Habitat
Solitary, scattered, or in small groups in mixed hardwood-conifer woods; fruiting from late fall to early winter, mostly along the coast north of San Francisco.

Edibility
Questionable; peppery when raw.

Comments
Chalciporus piperatoides is a close relative or sister species of Chalciporus piperatus. Similarities include small size, a rusty-brown to cinnamon-brown cap, yellow mycelium at the base of the stipe, and a peppery taste. It can be distinguished from C. piperatus by an olive, not brown spore print and bluing, not simply darkening of the pore layer when bruised. In the San Francisco Bay Area, Chalciporus piperatus is the more common of the two species occurring sporadically under Monterey pine (Pinus radiatus).