Rubroboletus pulcherrimus (Thiers & Halling) D. Arora, N. Siegel & J.L. Frank
No common name
Boletaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
No common name
Boletaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
Photograph
Map
Distribution of Rubroboletus pulcherrimus
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Species Information
Summary:
{See also Red-pored Boletus Table.} Features include dark reddish brown, tomentose to fibrillose cap, dark red pores, yellow flesh and tubes that turn blue, and club-shaped to somewhat bulbous stem colored pale reddish brown with dark red reticulations. Thiers and Halling in 1976 examined the type of Boletus eastwoodiae (Murrill) Saccardo & Trotter and found it to be Boletus satanas (treated here as Rubroboletus eastwoodiae): what had passed in California under the name Boletus eastwoodiae was renamed Boletus pulcherrimus, (Thiers(9)).
Odor:
mild (Thiers)
Taste:
mild (Thiers)
Microscopic:
spores 13-16 x 5.5-6.5 microns, subelliptic to subfusoid, smooth, not dextrinoid, ochraceous in KOH, moderately thick-walled; basidia 1-4-spored, 35-40 x 9-12 microns; hymenial cystidia scattered, 33-60 x 8-12 microns, fusoid-ventricose to subclavate to basidioid, colorless to ochraceous in KOH; cap cuticle a trichodermium of tangled hyphae with noticeably roughened walls; clamp connections absent, (Thiers)
Spore Deposit:
brown (Thiers), olive-brown (Arora)
Notes:
Rubroboletus pulcherrimus is found in WA, OR, and CA, (Thiers), and BC and NM, (Bessette).
EDIBILITY
poisonous, causing severe gastrointestinal distress, at least one fatality, (Bessette)
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
Rubroboletus haematinus lacks red brown color in the cap, has a differently colored and shaped stem, has yellow pores when young, and is associated particularly with mountain conifers especially Red Fir, (Thiers). Rubroboletus eastwoodiae has 1) a pale gray to olive-buff cap (rather than brown), 2) paler and more vinaceous red pores, 3) typically abruptly bulbous stem (as opposed to clavate or bulbous), 4) association with oak, and 5) spores that are smaller, and 6) septa of some of the tramal hyphae that are amyloid, (Thiers comparing Boletus "satanas" - here treated as Rubroboletus eastwoodiae - to what was then generally known as B. eastwoodiae). See also SIMILAR section of Neoboletus ''luridiformis''.Habitat
single to gregarious in humus in mixed woods, (Thiers), single or scattered on ground in conifer or mixed woods, August to January, (Bessette), summer, fall, winter
Status Information
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Phallus imperialis Schulzer