Summary:
It is likely that this species will require combination into a new genus. Features include 1) velvety, tomentose, or fibrillose cap that is olive buff to olive yellow with pinkish or reddish overtones and decidedly red when old, 2) flesh that is pale yellow and turns blue erratically when cut, 3) yellow pores that become olive yellow when old, and turn blue, and 4) stem that is yellow or red or usually a combination, and often pruinose but not reticulate. Siegel(2) say, "It belongs in a small group of boletes that will soon be given their own genus."

Chemical Reactions:
cap cuticle black with KOH, (Thiers), cap cuticle dark reddish brown to blackish with application of KOH, flesh blue-gray with application of FeSO4, (Bessette)

Odor:
mild (Thiers)

Taste:
mild (Thiers)

Microscopic:
spores 14.5-19.2 x 4-6 microns, fusoid to subcylindric in face view, ventricose in side view, smooth, inamyloid, pale ochraceous in KOH, thin-walled; basidia 4-spored, 30-36 x 7-10 microns, clavate, colorless; hymenial cystidia typically deeply embedded in hymenium (and sometimes obscure), 30-60 x 7-12 microns, clavate to fusoid to fusoid-ventricose, colorless, thin-walled; cap cuticle a layer of loosely interwoven tangled hyphae forming poorly differentiated trichodermium, often with free hyphal tips, occasionally with numerous laticifers; stem cuticle has fertile basidia in upper part, changing to a layer of interwoven hyphae toward base; clamp connections absent, (Thiers)

Spore Deposit:
olive brown (Thiers)

Notes:
Boletus smithii is found in WA, OR, ID, and CA, (Thiers), and also in BC, (Bessette).

EDIBILITY

yes (Bessette, Phillips)