Large bolete at the base of a stump
Boletaceae Family
Angles captured. Five frames: the cap from above against the stump, two from below showing the stipe and the pore surface, one stepped back, one of the base.
Morphology
A large fruitbody, cap 12–15 cm, tan to pale ochre, broadly convex and dry. The underside is poroid, not gilled, pale cream to buff where visible. Stipe thick, pale, widening toward the base, set against dead wood.
Habitat & substrate
At the base of a rotting stump in mixed hardwood leaf litter, deep shade.
Lookalikes & what rules them out
The size, the pale poroid underside and the thick pale stipe put this in the boletes, but the cap colour is too generic to take it further from photographs. Growth on or beside dead wood narrows the field usefully — most boletes are mycorrhizal with living trees rather than saprotrophic on stumps.
To confirm this identification
Whether the flesh changes colour when cut, and whether the growth is genuinely on the wood or on buried roots beside it. A spore print would settle the family.
Notes
The largest fruitbody on this walk.
Found at Massasoit Rd area, Worcester, MA on Wednesday, 12 August 2026 at 17:54. See the full walk for that day's weather and everything else recorded.
Others in this group
Large orange-brown bolete, uprootedBoletaceae · Jul 31Low–moderate
Bolete with boletinoid poresSuillus or Phylloporus · Jul 31Moderate
Olive-brown boleteBoletaceae · Aug 6Low–moderate
Dark chestnut boleteBoletaceae · Aug 6Moderate
Wine-red boleteBoletaceae · Aug 6Moderate
Orange-capped boletesBoletaceae · Aug 6Low–moderate
Red-capped bolete with yellow poresBoletaceae · Aug 8Moderate
Yellow-brown boleteBoletaceae · Aug 8Low–moderate