Mushroom Identifier

Fungi encyclopedia

A reference for the fungi you actually find

Each entry describes one species the way you meet it in the field — the cap and its surface, what sits underneath, the stipe and its base, the spore print colour, the substrate it fruits from, and the species most often confused with it.

Showing results for Boletus

Chestnut Bolete

Chestnut Bolete

Boletes

A neat, rusty chestnut bolete with white to pale yellow pores, brittle flesh and a hollow, chambered stipe, and a pale straw spore print unusual for the group.

Spore print · Pale straw yellow

Frost's Bolete

Frost's Bolete

Boletes

A vivid lacquered blood-red bolete with dark red pores that weep amber droplets when young, and a deeply pitted, coarsely netted red stipe. Bruises blue instantly.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Bay Bolete

Bay Bolete

Boletes

A rich bay-brown bolete whose lemon-yellow pores flush blue-green within seconds of being touched. The stipe is brown-streaked and lacks the raised netting of the King Bolete.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Birch Bolete

Birch Bolete

Boletes

A tall, slender bolete with a dull brown cap, off-white pores and a long white stipe roughened by vertical rows of small dark scabers. It grows only with birch.

Spore print · Snuff-brown to ochre-brown

Slate Bolete

Slate Bolete

Boletes

A firm, slate-grey to grey-brown scaber stalk of poplars, with a long rooting stem, dark scabers, and cut flesh that reddens then turns blue-green at the base.

Spore print · Ochre-brown

Suede Bolete

Suede Bolete

Boletes

A medium bolete with a dry, suede-textured olive-brown cap over large, bright golden-yellow angular pores. The stipe is ribbed rather than netted and lacks red streaking.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Manzanita Bolete

Manzanita Bolete

Boletes

A large western North American scaber stalk with a deep red-brown, often sticky cap, coarse black scabers on a white stem, and flesh that greys and blackens when cut.

Spore print · Ochre-brown

Weeping Bolete

Weeping Bolete

Boletes

A slippery cinnamon-brown bolete of pine woods whose pale yellow pores exude milky droplets in humid weather, giving it its name. The ringless stalk is dusted with fine brown granular dots.

Spore print · Cinnamon-brown

Velvet Bolete

Boletes

A stout pine bolete with a dry, velvety orange-ochre cap and small dark cinnamon pores. The pale yellow flesh usually flushes blue where cut.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Foxy Bolete

Foxy Bolete

Boletes

A firm-fleshed conifer scaber stalk with a deep fox-red cap, blackish scabers on a stout white stem, and flesh that greys strongly with blue-green tints at the base.

Spore print · Ochre-brown

Lake's Bolete

Lake's Bolete

Boletes

A scaly reddish-brown bolete of Douglas-fir woods with large radial yellow pores and a ring zone. Flesh at the very stalk base often flushes blue-green.

Spore print · Olive-brown to cinnamon

Hazel Bolete

Hazel Bolete

Boletes

A scaber stalk of hazel and hornbeam with a distinctly wrinkled, pitted olive-brown cap and white flesh that darkens through pink to near black when cut.

Spore print · Ochre-brown

Bolete Eater

Bolete Eater

Other Fungi

A parasitic fungus that engulfs boletes in a felty white coat which ripens to bright golden yellow, distorting the host until its pores and stipe are barely recognisable.

Spore print · Not applicable; golden-yellow powdery spore mass

Ravenel's Bolete

Ravenel's Bolete

Boletes

An unmistakable bolete wrapped in a bright sulphur-yellow powdery veil that tears to reveal a sticky reddish cap and leaves a cottony yellow ring on the stipe.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Gilled Bolete

Gilled Bolete

Boletes

A bolete that wears gills instead of pores: thick, widely spaced, bright golden-yellow blades running down the stipe beneath a dry velvety brown cap.

Spore print · Olive-yellow to yellowish-brown

Graceful Bolete

Graceful Bolete

Boletes

A slim, long-stemmed bolete with a velvety chestnut cap, white pores that age flesh-pink, and an unusual pinkish-brown spore print.

Spore print · Pinkish to reddish-brown

Iodine Bolete

Iodine Bolete

Boletes

A pale, dry-capped bolete of warm oak woodland with lemon-yellow pores that do not blue and a stipe base whose flesh carries a distinctive iodoform-like odour.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Devil's Bolete

Devil's Bolete

Boletes

A massive, pale-capped bolete of warm limestone woodland, with blood-red pores, a squat bulbous stipe covered in a fine red net, and flesh that blues only slowly.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Porcini

Porcini

Boletes

The archetypal stout bolete, with a smooth brown bun-shaped cap, white pores ageing yellow-olive, and a swollen pale stipe netted with fine white reticulation. Flesh stays white and unchanging when cut.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Ornate-stalked Bolete

Ornate-stalked Bolete

Boletes

A firm woodland bolete recognised by its brilliant chrome-yellow stipe covered in a raised network of ridges. Grey to olive caps sit above yellow pores that darken when handled.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Violet-gray Bolete

Violet-gray Bolete

Boletes

A handsome bolete with a deep violet-purple cap and matching stipe, white pores that age pink, and unchanging white flesh. A common oak associate in eastern North America.

Spore print · Pinkish-brown

Red Cracking Bolete

Boletes

A small woodland bolete whose dull brown cap cracks into a mosaic with pinkish-red flesh showing in the fissures. Yellow pores bruise blue-green and the stipe is red-streaked.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Lilac-brown Bolete

Lilac-brown Bolete

Boletes

A dark, softly purple-brown bolete whose pore surface is purple-grey from the start and whose stipe is densely peppered with fine dark purplish dots.

Spore print · Reddish-brown to pinkish-brown

Brown Birch Bolete

Brown Birch Bolete

Boletes

The commonest of the scaber stalks, a tall grey-brown bolete of birch woodland with a slender stem roughened by dark scaly tufts.

Spore print · Snuff-brown