More Mushroom Mysteries

These huge boletes popped up over night.  If only I could have identified them to species.

      About 2 weeks ago, my area was hit by a pretty intense rainstorm.  While my friends were starting to worry about the hot and humid weather that would follow, I began to hope for one more crop of edible pinewood king boletes (Boletus pinophilus).  Sure enough, as I drove down my street I noticed three huge boletes growing on the side of the road amongst some old and decaying pinewood king boletes I had seen earlier in the season.  These mushrooms were huge, and they weren't there the night before.  I quickly pulled off the road and harvested them.  The mushrooms surprised me because they had popped up so quickly and late in the year, but the real surprise would come later.
      I ended up taking the mushrooms to Elizabeth's house.  She has a dehydrator which works much better than an oven, and a compost pile so the mushy parts of the mushroom don't get wasted.  We started to pull away the pores that had already turned pretty mushy.  They peeled off nice and easy revealing the yellow surface below.  I was feeling pretty excited, but then I noticed bluish green bruises forming on the underside of the cap where we had pulled the pores away.  There was no bruising or bleeding when we cut cross-sections through the stalk or cap.  I remembered the rule of thumb that says, "don't eat boletes that bruise blue or have red pores."  At first disappointment set in.  I would not be eating these delicious-looking mushrooms.  Then a sense of amazement came over me.  These mushrooms shared many characteristics with the edible boletes I had eaten earlier tin the year.  They shared extremely similar morphologies (the current mushrooms were much flatter, but I originally attributed that to different weather conditions), growth habits, and habitat.  In fact,  I found these mushrooms intermingled with the remains of pinewood king boletes (Boletus pinophilius) that I never harvested.  Some were just inches away from the older pinewood king boletes.  I was so sure that they too were pinewood king boletes and suddenly it seems that they weren't.  I reminded to always be vigilant when foraging for mushrooms.  Never make assumptions.

The blue bruising.  It started out faint and then turned darker.  It appeared anywhere we touched the underside of the cap, but it did not appear along cross section cuts through the stalk or cap.

      I'm still not sure what species the mushrooms were.  They could have been another bolete species that shares habitats with the pinewood king bolete.  Unfortunately, I was in such a hurry that day that I didn't have time to take many photos or try to key them out.  I wish I had.  Too make matters even more confusing, the rule of thumb for boletes, "don't eat boletes that bruise blue or have red spores," is not a perfect rule.  It eliminates the toxic species but also rules out some edible species.  However, as a novice forager, I wasn't about to test my identification skills and risk getting sick.  But wait, it can get even more confusing!  Michael Kuo's dichotomous key to boletes has a little disclaimer that says faint blue bruising or bleeding may occur on boletes species that one wouldn't expect to bruise blue!  Perhaps these were pinewood king boletes after all.  I doubt it though.  Earlier correspondence with Bill Petty, a Florida mycological expert, warned me that similar looking species can occur together.  In the end I went with another rule of thumb, "it's better to be safe than to be sorry," and I composted the mushrooms.  Were the mushrooms  toxic boletes, pinewood king bole*tes that bruised blue, or an edible bolete* that is supposed to bruise blue.  I may never know, but I can take solace in knowing that nature still has plenty of surprises for me!
      Hmm, it's actually raining right now.  I wonder if more blue-bruising boletes will be popping up.

*Note:  It is your responsibility to correctly identify any fungi that you plan on eating.  Consult a local expert and/or an accurate field guide.  Do not eat any wild fungus unless you are 100% sure of its identity.