Leccinum albostipitatum

The cap reaches 80–250 mm in diameter and is hemispherical when young, maturing to convex or plano‑convex. Its surface is finely tomentose and fibrillose, displaying a vivid orange that may fade toward the margin in older fruit‑bodies and often cracks slightly with age. The stipe measures 50–270 mm in length and 15–50 mm in thickness, initially whitish and densely clothed in fine white squamules that darken to light brown in mature specimens; handling typically induces a clear blue bruise. The flesh is white in the stipe base but turns vinaceous to greyish‑black when cut in the cap. Tubes are 9–30 mm deep, adnate to slightly decurrent, with pores about 0.5 mm wide that bruise brown. Microscopically, spores measure (9.5–)11.0–17.0 by 4.0–5.5 μm, spindle-shaped (fusiform) with a conical apex and shallow suprahilar depression. Basidia are 25–35 by 7.5–11.0 μm and four‑spored. Hymenial cystidia measure 20–45 by 7–10 μm (lageniform). The cap cutical (pileipellis) is a cutis of narrow cylindrical elements (35–80 by 4.0–15.5 μm) that appear yellowish‑brown in water. Caulocystidia are 15–65 by 10.0–16.0 μm, clavate to fusiform. Clamp connections are absent.^[2]

Leccinum albostipitatum grows solitary or in groups (gregariously) in mixed forests and poplar stands, strictly in ectomycorrhizal association with Populus species. It is not recorded from the Netherlands but is common in Scandinavia and the montane regions of central Europe, becoming rare at lower altitudes. Known localities include Monte Bella, Italy, Sommauthe/Beaumont-en-Argonne (Champagne-Ardenne, France), and Sogndal (Vestland, Norway).^[2]