Black birch bolete, the dark one

If you come across a birch bolete with an almost black cap, it’s most likely Leccinum melaneum (Leccinum melaneum), the darkest of our birch boletes. Folk names call it simply “the black mushroom.”

It’s less known than the brown birch bolete, but valued even more highly for its firmer flesh. Let’s see how to recognize it, where to look for it and what it’s good for in the kitchen.

How to recognize it

The main feature of Leccinum melaneum is right in its name: a very dark cap, from dark brown to almost black.

• Cap dark brown, chestnut-black, matte or slightly velvety.
• Tubes whitish, turning gray with age.
• Stem white or grayish, with dark, almost black scales.
• Flesh white, firmer than in other birch boletes, barely changing when cut.

The dark cap combined with the typical scales on the stem and a birch nearby make this mushroom recognizable. Among birch boletes, it’s like a dignified dark relative.

Where it grows

Like all birch boletes, Leccinum melaneum lives under birch, but it has its own favorite spots.

Look for it:

• in deciduous and mixed birch woods on poorer, sandy soils;
• where birch grows next to pine;
• at bright forest edges and in clearings with drier soil.

Unlike the ghost bolete, which loves damp ground, Leccinum melaneum leans toward drier, sandier spots. Its season falls mainly in the second half of summer and fall.

Why it’s good on the table

Leccinum melaneum is one of the tastiest birch boletes, precisely because of its firm flesh. It holds its shape better than its watery relatives.

It’s fried, boiled, pickled and dried. Like all birch boletes, it darkens during cooking, but in its case it’s less noticeable, since it’s dark to begin with.

Thanks to its density, it’s well suited to pickling and drying, where springy flesh matters. For the table, take young, firm mushrooms, and leave old ones with a sagging pore layer in the forest.

How it differs from the brown birch bolete

Mixing up these two mushrooms is no big deal, since both are edible, but the difference is worth knowing.

• Color. The brown birch bolete is gray-brown, Leccinum melaneum dark brown, right down to black.
• Flesh. In Leccinum melaneum it’s firmer and holds its shape better.
• Soil. Leccinum melaneum is more often found on drier sandy soils.

Far more important is not to confuse any birch bolete with the bitter bolete. It stands out with its pinkish tubes, the dark net on its stem and its unbearable bitterness, so even one such mushroom will ruin a dish.

The weather will tell you when to go out for birch boletes. Keep an eye on moisture and warmth with our mushroom radar: it shows when conditions line up well for mushrooms to appear.

Sources

• “Identification Guide to the Fungi of Ukraine” (Kyiv, Naukova Dumka publishing house).
• Leccinum melaneum on GBIF, the global biodiversity database.
• Leccinum on MycoBank, the international fungal nomenclature database.
• Leccinum scabrum on Wikipedia.