BOLETUS PSEUDOREGIUS Kallenbach

Description:

Cap up to 20 cm, at first hemispherical, the convex to flat-convex, dull pink, reddish brown, brownish or ochraceous with pinkish tint, dry, sometimes cracked, not blueing when bruised. Stipe cylindrical to club-shaped, sometimes tapering towards the base, in the upper parts yellow or bright yellow, in the lower 1/2 – 1/3 pale pink, pink or sometimes pinkish brown, at least in the upper half with well developed concolorous with the base or reddish network, stipe surface blueing when bruised. Flesh yellowish white or whitish in the cap, lemon yellow in the stipe, pale pink to dirty pink at the stipe base, bleuing predominantely above the tubes when exposed to air. Tubes initially lemon yellow, then yellow, finally yellow with olivaceous tint, blueing when exposed to air. Pores concolorous, blueing when bruised. Smell of young fruitbodies indistinctive, later smells of chemicals or of smoked meat. Taste not distinctive. Spores 10–14.5 × 4–5.5 μm, ratio 2.2–3.2. Pileipellis (the cap cuticle) trichodermium of interwoven septate hyphae of cylindrical incrusted cells. Chemical reactions: hyphae of the flesh in the stipe base inamyloid with Melzer’s solution. Distribution. Not yet precisely known. In Europe apparently not seen in north and more common in south. Recorded from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Romania, Russia (Caucasus), Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and UK. Similarity. Boletus regius is somewhat similar, but it has pink to pinkish red cap, yellow unchanging flesh and spores of different size. Boletus kluzakii has similarly coloured fruitbodies but features bitter taste. Compare also with Boletus appendiculatus and Boletus fechtneri.

Habitat:

Habitat. Broadleaf forests, mycorrhizal with oaks (Quercus), probably also with beech (Fagus) or sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa).

Notes:

Note. Some older sources list this species under the name Boletus speciosus Frost. The later is different fungus, found in North America. Other authorities prefer to use the name Boletus fuscoroseus Smotl. Being not yet familiar with Smotlacha’s original description here I prefer to keep the name B. pseudoregius.