Red Cracking Bolete

Description:

This common bolete is fairly widely distributed in North America, and can be recognized by its brown to olive brown, cracked cap; pinkish to reddish flesh is exposed in the cracks, separating it from most other boletes with oft-cracked caps. The two closest look-alikes are Boletellus chrysenteroides, which has a darker, brown cap and often grows from decaying wood--and Boletellus pseudochrysenteroides, which has a rosy red cap. Both of these look-alike species have ribbed spores, making them easily separable from Boletus chrysenteron with microscopic analysis. I am treating two virtually indistinguishable (putative) species together here; Boletus chrysenteron is described below, followed by comments distinguishing Boletus truncatus ( http://www.mushroomexpert.com/boletus_ch... )

Habitat:

location: North America, Europe edibility: Edible fungus colour: Red or redish or pink, Brown normal size: 5-15cm cap type: Convex to shield shaped stem type: Simple stem flesh: Flesh discolours when cut, bruised or damaged spore colour: Olivaceous habitat: Grows in woods, Grows on the ground Boletus chrysenteron Bull. ex St. Amans syn. Xerocomus chrysenteron (Bull. ex St. Amans) Quél. Rotfussröhrling Cèpe à pied rouge, Bolet à chair jaune, Red Cracking Bolete Cap 4–11cm, dingy brown to pale sepia or buff with olivaceous flush, or with a pinkish red flush particularly late in the season, slightly velvety at first then smooth, later cracking irregularly to show coral flesh, making this an easily recognizable species. Stem 40–80 x 10–15mm, lemon-yellow at apex, red from middle downwards becoming more buff towards base. Flesh cream or lemon-yellow in cap, brown to reddish-buff in stem, usually pale red just below cap, turning slightly blue above the tubes and in base of stem but only slowly. Taste and smell slight but not distinctive. Tubes sulphur or lemon yellow, becoming greenish with age. Pores large, angular, similarly coloured and sometimes bruising greenish. Spore print olivaceous snuff-brown. Spores subfusiform, 12–15 x 3.5–5µ. Habitat with broad-leaved trees. Season autumn. Very common. Edible but mushy when cooked. Distribution, America and Europe ( http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/D... )

Notes:

Young specimens of B. chrysenteron often have a dark, dry surface, and tomentose caps which might easily be mistaken for Bay Boletes B. badius. When fully expanded, caps are 4 to 10 cm in diameter with very little substance and thin flesh that turns a blue color when slightly cut or bruised.[2] Caps mature to convex and plane in old age.[3] Cracks in the mature cap reveal a thin layer of red flesh below the skin.[2] The 10 to 15 mm diameter stems have no ring, are bright yellow and the lower part is covered in coral-red fibrils and has a constant elliptical to fusiform diameter throughout its length of 4 to 8 cm tall.[3] The cream-colored stem flesh turns blue when cut. B. chrysenteron has large, yellow, angular pores,[4] and produces an olive brown spore print (wikipedia), ( http://www.mycobank.org/MycoTaxo.aspx?Li... )