Old man of the woods — weathered
Strobilomyces sp. Genus
Angles captured. Four field frames of the torn, weathered fruitbody, its sectioned half through the timed series, and the spore print on black card.
Morphology
Cap 5–7 cm, ragged, the grey-black wool torn to patches showing pale flesh beneath; past its prime. Pore surface grey-brown where visible. The cut half stains like its fresh neighbour — salmon-orange deepening toward black through the timed frames. Spore print dark brown-black with a coarse pored texture.
Habitat & substrate
Litter under hemlock and hardwood beside the trail.
Lookalikes & what rules them out
Shaggy black-and-white wool over a pored underside belongs to Strobilomyces and almost nothing else in these woods; the near-black print confirms it. Compare TM0168, the fresh fruitbody found twenty minutes later. The two were sectioned in the same sitting; this entry carries its own half of the timed series.
To confirm this identification
Nothing for the genus. The species split (S. strobilaceus against S. confusus) is microscopic and is not attempted.
Notes
Print card 7; the field frame number written on the card ties print to fruitbody inside the photograph itself. Frame assignment between the two old men was supplied by the compiler on 21 August after the series was first pooled — the same correction class as the TM0154 split, caught the same way.
Found at Walker Pond Rd area, Sturbridge, MA on Thursday, 20 August 2026 at 11:39. 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 poresBoletinellus, Suillus or Phylloporus · Jul 31Moderate
Olive-brown boleteBoletaceae · Aug 6Low–moderate
Rosy cap with golden gill-platescf. Phylloporus · Aug 6Moderate
Dark chestnut boleteBoletaceae · Aug 6Moderate
Wine-red boleteBoletaceae · Aug 6Moderate
Orange-capped boletesBoletaceae · Aug 6Low–moderate
Red-capped bolete with yellow poresBoletaceae · Aug 8Moderate