Family: Bolete [fungi] [Boletaceae]


Boletus

Buchwaldoboletus

Chalciporus

Gynoporus


Suillus

Leccinum

Porphyrellus

Pseudoboletus


Strobilomyces

Tylopilus

Many mushrooms of the Boletus Genus have a very short and stubby appearance, almost dwarfish, with thick stout and stumpish stipes (stems) the girth widening towards the base, and a compact but thick cap. Some Boletes appear to have caps that are not large enough to accommodate all the pores beneath, and the pores are visible from a side-view perspective. Many have a net veil like a silk stocking covering the stipe, which can be of various colours and which may stretch larger towards the base.

Another feature of Boletes is that they do not have gills beneath the cap, but pores, or thin tubular structures all stuck together and bunched vertically like very narrow straws. These pores hold the spores. Sometimes the pores are so small as to resemble expanded polyurethane foam (from a spray-can) upon which can be imprinted patterns using a blunt instrument in much the same way as you can with expanded polystyrene foam. When you so write, the pores of some boletes turn a bluish, bluish-black, beetrootish, greenish, greyish or pinkish colour, or otherwise dis-colours upon bruising or cutting, dependent upon species.

Some Boletes emanate an odour, smelling variously (depending upon species) of radish, garlic, iodine, urine, rancid fat or cinnamon.



[BOLETUS] Boletes

Bitter Beech Bolete (Boletus calopus) Photo: © Derek Mayes

Summer Bolete (Boletus reticulatus) Photo: © RWD



[SUILLUS]

Bovine Bolete (Suillus bovinus) Photo: © Derek Mayes

Family: Bolete [fungi] [Boletaceae]

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