BOLETUS FRAGRANS Vittad.

Description:

Fruitbodies often clustered. Pileus up to 15 cm, at first hemispherical, then convex, flat-convex to flat, dry, usually velvety, brown to dark brown, sometimes reddish brown, unchanging when bruised, cap margin often wavy. Stipe stout, cylindrical, club-shaped or swollen, cream or pale yellow to yellow, often reddish, brownish or rusty spotted in the lower part, covered with concolorous with the background or darker brownish or reddish granules, blueing or blackening when bruised. Flesh pale lemon yellow in the stipe, cream or whitish in the cap, blueing when exposed to air. Tubes pale yellow to yellow with olivaceous tint, bluieng when injured. Pores concolorous with the tubes, but sometimes with rusty tint, blueing or blackening when bruised. Smell mostly not distinctive, a bit fruity. Taste slightly acid. Spores 10–13 × 4–4.5 μm, ratio 2.4–3.1. Pileipellis (the cap cuticle) a trichodermium, composed of hyphae of cylindrical, finely encrusted cells. Distribution. In Europe most often encountered in the Mediterranean, rarely seen in Central and Western Europe, absent in north. Similarity. Compare with Boletus impolitus, which has unchanging flesh, tubes and pores. Forms with reddish brown cap may somewhat resemble Boletus spretus.