Foxy bolete or Brown birch bolete

Cap 8–15 cm, hemispherical in young mushrooms, then cushion-shaped, almost flat in old ones. The color is dark — from brownish crimson to dark chestnut or blood-cherry red. The surface is matte and velvety, slightly rough in dry weather, barely tacky in damp weather. The cap skin does not peel off.

Cap 5–15 cm across, at first spherical or hemispherical, later cushion-shaped. The surface is smooth or slightly wrinkled, dry or a little sticky in wet weather. Color ranges from grayish brown to dark brown, more rarely almost black.

The hymenophore is tubular, free, with a small notch near the stem. White when young, then grayish cream, grayish brown in mature mushrooms. The pores are small and round. They darken slightly when pressed.

The hymenophore is tubular. The tubes and pores are white, small in young mushrooms and wider in mature ones. When pressed, the pores turn slightly brownish, but there's never any bluing: unlike in the red-capped scaber stalks, the flesh doesn't blue even at the stem base.

Stem 8–15 cm tall, 2–4 cm thick, cylindrical, slightly bulbous at the base. Whitish or cream, covered along its entire length with characteristic greyish-black scales (dark even in young mushrooms) — darker than those of the classic red-capped scaber stalk. The base of the stem sometimes has a bluish-green tinge.

Stem 8–18 cm tall, 1.5–3 cm thick, cylindrical, fairly long and slender compared with the cap. The surface is white or grayish, densely covered with dark, fibrous scales — the hallmark of the genus Leccinum. The stem is firm and fibrous.

The flesh is white and very firm; when cut it slowly turns greyish or blackish with a violet tinge, less strongly than in other red-capped scaber stalks. The stem base sometimes turns bluish. The texture is meaty, with a pleasant resistance under the knife. It gets wormy less often than the classic red-capped scaber stalk.

The flesh is firm and white; when cut it doesn't change colour or turns slightly pinkish, and after a few hours may become a little greyish or brownish. It darkens to grey-black only when cooked. The taste is mild and neutral. The cap skin doesn't peel.

Smell faint, pleasantly mushroomy, with no distinct notes. Taste mild, not bitter.

The smell is unobtrusive, pleasant and typically mushroomy. The aroma intensifies with cooking. When dried, the brown birch bolete takes on a rich scent that falls short of porcini but is noticeably better than most other pored mushrooms.