Found growing mostly at base of or near a large (2' diameter, 5' high) stump, probably of Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla). CAP: dark brown to nearly black, 3-5 inches wide (7.6-13cm), tubes dark reddish-brown, sometimes with tubes closed, tubes staining nearly black in old age; STIPE: 3-5inches tall (7-13cm), streaked with reddish-brown fibrils, becoming yellow-brown at soil level, and with light yellowish-white rhizomorphs extending into the soil at base. At least one of these specimens with closed-gills may be in the process of becoming a Rhizopogon with a stipe, one of those oddities of nature called generically a gastroid Bolete. When the tubes of a bolete are closed off, they cannot release spores into the atmosphere, and must therefore rely on animal or insect activity for dispersal. In this case, the apparent symbiont is a slug, which has eaten into many of the tubes, consuming quantities of spores, which will be excreted some few feet away.