Monday, September 5, 2011

A Bolete with Reticulated Stipe

This year my block has been pretty giving in regards to boletes (and other mushrooms). Perhaps this is due to the fact that there is a good amount of oak, maple and pine trees planted around here and that they are all quite old (I would guess at least 50 years old). Perhaps is just luck or, maybe, this happened everywhere in the DC region and I am just not aware of it. In any case, I've been trying to pick some different boletes everyday I go out to see if I get a chance to play with the identification keys from "North American Boletes: A Color Guide to the Fleshy Pored Mushrooms" by  Bessete and colleagues. Obviously I haven't had the time to post all the boletes I found, but I'll try to post something once a week (let's see how it is going to be once my second son is born next week ;-). As a last comment, today was a perfect day for picking mushrooms around here and there were hundreds of mushrooms growing in the lawns around here (Rollins Park, Rockville, MD). On a first look, I could easily identify A. volvata, A. amerimuscariaA. panterina, A. campestris, C. craniformis/C. cyathiformis, P. tinctorius, some Tylopilus sp., and various Russulas (red and yellow). There were also a few other species that I could not identify and that I'll try to post about later this week. Today I am going to post something about a bolete I found a few days ago.

Date: 08/28/2011
Location: Rollins Park, Rockville, MD
Habitat: Growing on grass, under oak, solitary

Description
Pileus - Orange/brown, velvety, somewhat flat with depressed center, ovoid, margin is incurved, context, context is light salmon color, flavor and taste are non-distinctive
Hymenium - yellow, with pores, pores are irregular and polygonal, surface does not stain when bruised, tubes are approximately 5 mm long
Stipe - solid, equal, eccentric, surface is coarsely reticulated, color is light beige, context is white and it turns light pink fast upon cutting, no ring or partial veil observed.
Spore print - not obtained

Impressions
This seems to be a specimen of Boletus illudens, an edible mushroom that usually grows between July-October, under oak, on the East Coast. Is is also known as Xerocomus illudens.

Update (09/06/2011)
I have posted some photos and the description on Mushroomobserver.org to see what other people think and I'll update this page later to include this information.

Update (09/06/2011)
Dave W from Mushroomobserver.org has suggested this specimen looks more like B. tenax. According to Roy Halling (also at Mushroomobserver.org) both mushrooms are very similar but the context is pale yellow in B. illudens and white in B. tenax. Also the stipe color is yellow in B. illudens and whitish in B. tenax.

References
Bessette AE, Roody WC, Bessette AR. North American Boletes: A  Color Guide to the Flesh Pored Mushrooms, Page 121

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