BOLETUS RADICANS (Pers. ex Fries)

Description:

Cap up to 20 cm, at first hemispherical, later convex to flat-convex, dry, smooth, sometimes cracked, ivory, greyish, ochraceous grey or ochraceous, blueing or not when bruised. Stipe cylindrical, club-shaped or swollen at the base, often rooting, lemon yellow to yellow, sometimes discolouring to yellowish white, with or without reddish or rusty band, at least in the upper part with white to yellow network. Flesh in young fruitbodies lemon yellow, later yellowish, sometimes pinkish in the stipe base, blueing when exposed to air. Tubes lemon yellow, later pale yellow with olivaceous tint, blueing when injured. Pores concolorous with the tubes, blueing when bruised. Smell not distinctive. Taste bitter. Spores 10–15 × 4–6 μm, ratio 2–3.1. Pileipellis trichodermium of interwoven septate hyphae of finely incrusted cylindrical cells. Chemical reactions: hyphae of the flesh in the stipe base inamyloid with Melzer’s solution. Distribution. Widespread throughout Europe, though rare in north. Note. Boletus sanguineipes is very similar and is distinguished on the account of its reddish stipe (Panzera 1997). By my oppinion it is an occasionally found unusual form of Boletus radicans.

Habitat:

Habitat. Broadleaf forests, mycorrhizal with oaks (Quercus), beech (Fagus), hornbeam (Carpinus) or lime (Tilia).