Friday, March 23, 2012

Could this be the King Bolete?

The mushroom that I suspect may be a king bolete (Boletus edulis).  The quarter is for scale.
       Whenever I walk, run, or bike around town, I always glance along the roadsides looking for interesting wildlife, plants, or wild edibles.  Today I went on a short ride to check on an old muscadine vine and along the way I noticed a nice looking mushroom.  There is a possibility that it is a king bolete (Boletus edulis).  I am somewhat familiar with them, but I have never seen one in this region before.  King boletes out west have yellow spore tubes.  The tubes on this mushroom were tan, but they might just be young.  There were a few smaller mushrooms around.  I'll let them mature longer than this one and see if the tubes turn yellow.  Mushrooms can vary greatly from region to region so I wanted to make sure this is indeed a king bolete.  I contacted my brother, a hobbyist mushroom forager, and he thinks it is a king bolete too, but he is more familiar with mushrooms of the intermountain west.  I also contacted my former roommate and coworker who is also a skilled mushroom forager.  He said, "it could be...there are a lot of other boletes in the southeast though."  He also informed me that the general rule with boletes is Do Not Eat any that bruise blue or have red spores.  With mushrooms (and plants), it is important to be sure of what you are eating so he suggested I contact a local expert.  I am taking his advice.  A quick google search led me to contact the University of West Florida Mycology Club.  Hopefully somebody from the club will be able to share some knowledge, but I am also curious to hear from any readers who have experience with mushrooms of the Gulf coast.  Do you think it is a king bolete?  Identifying characteristics are listed below.

A cross-section of the mushroom in question.

  • Harvested 3/23/12 after an afternoon shower.
  • Found in Navarre, FL (near Pensacola, on the panhandle).
  • No gills.
  • Tan tubes (see photo).
  • Cap is approximately 10cm wide.
  • Stalk was firm.
  • Growing under a loblolly pine (Pinus taeda).
  • Did Not bruise blue.
  • I am spore printing right now.  I will update the blog tomorrow morning.
  • Distinct reticulations on the stalk.
  • Drying the mushroom produced a nutty aroma.
  •  A few fly amanitas (Amanita muscaria) have also been fruiting, but most of them fruited in the fall and late winter (I don't know if these two species fruit together in the southeast). 
      If there are any other characteristics that would be useful in identifying the mushroom, let me know.

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