Mottled bolete

Description:

Maybe Leccinum variicolour? Growing under birch this mushroom was about 13cm across and similar in height. There was another nearby that was even more eaten by slugs. This one didn't have a distinctive smell or taste and didn't change colour when cut in half. However, where the slugs had eaten away at the stipe there was strong blue-green discolouration. The ground wasn't water-logged but was certainly damp, other areas of the woodland were quite boggy. Leccinum holopus (the ghost bolete) is described as growing in damp, soggy, birch woodland usually with spagnum moss and is called the Ghost Bolete for it's pale colours. The cobweb-like form of the pores (3rd photo) and the dark, damp habitat add to it's creepy image! L. holopus is quite a widespread fungus throughout Britain and most of Europe from Scandinavia right down to Portugal, Spain and Italy and is always found under Birch. In the UK it is a relatively rare find (576 records on nbngateway: https://data.nbn.org.uk/Taxa/NBNSYS00000...). I left all but a small piece of the cap to sporulate in situ supported by a nearby billberry bush. The Billberry, along with The Ghost Bolete, are both found usually on acidic soil. http://www.first-nature.com/fungi/leccin... The Ghost Bolete is considered edible, with the texture and flavour reportedly inferior to The Penny Bun or Cep (Boletus edulis). Similar looking species that I haven't been able to rule out are Leccinum schistophilum (only 7 records on nbngateway in the UK), Leccinum aerugineum which I guess must have a blue tint to the cap and Leccinum cyanobasileucum with a woolly grey stem. I can't find sufficient information on any of these species. mushroomexperts description of L. holopus mentions how the Ghost Bolete reacts to certain chemicals and the colours of dry specimens (exsiccata) http://www.mushroomexpert.com/leccinum_h... my spotting when dried was as follows; stem flesh pale yellow with possible greenish hints, stem surface whitish with black scabers, pores dark-ish brown, Cap surface I think a little lighter than the pores, flesh I think ranging from whitish to brown. It's a little difficult to tell what's what now since I only dried a small portion of the mushroom. UPDATE* I put this mushroom through Geoffrey Kibby's free key to Leccinum: http://www.britmycolsoc.org.uk/files/911... and it came out as probably Leccinum variicolour, reading the descriptions given in the key points me away from the Ghost Bolete and L. schistophilum particularly since it mentions L. variicolour as taking a long time to turn blue which would explain why the stipe didn't immediately blue strongly on cutting!

Notes:

hd11, I have a sample