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 Bolete

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

Black Velvet Bolete

Black Velvet Bolete

Boletes

A dramatic bolete with a velvety black cap and stipe over a white pore surface. Cut flesh flushes pink then slowly turns grey to black.

Spore print · Pinkish-brown

Ash-tree Bolete

Ash-tree Bolete

Boletes

An unusual bolete found only near ash trees, with an off-centre stipe and a shallow, vein-like yellow pore surface that radiates outward like gill folds.

Spore print · Olive-brown to yellow-brown

White King Bolete

White King Bolete

Boletes

A pale, almost white-capped king bolete of the American Southwest, growing with ponderosa pine and oak. Whitish stipe with a fine white net and unchanging white flesh.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Hollow-stemmed Larch Bolete

Hollow-stemmed Larch Bolete

Boletes

A dry, shaggy brown larch bolete with large radiating yellow pores and a uniquely hollow, chambered stalk. Cutting the stem lengthways confirms it instantly.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Red-capped Scaber Stalk

Red-capped Scaber Stalk

Boletes

A robust scaber stalk with a vivid orange-red cap whose skin overhangs the rim, and white flesh that darkens dramatically through wine-red to grey-black when cut.

Spore print · Ochre-brown

Old Man of the Woods

Old Man of the Woods

Boletes

An unmistakable bolete covered in coarse, shaggy, blackish-grey pyramidal scales, with a woolly stipe and white flesh that turns red and then black when cut. Its spore print is nearly black.

Spore print · Blackish-brown to black

Slippery Jack

Slippery Jack

Boletes

A slimy chestnut-brown bolete with small pale yellow pores and, uniquely among common Suillus species, a large membranous ring on the stipe that leaves a purple-brown band below it.

Spore print · Clay-brown to ochre

Short-stemmed Slippery Jack

Short-stemmed Slippery Jack

Boletes

A dark, heavily glutinous pine bolete on a conspicuously short, stout white stalk that lacks both a ring and obvious glandular dots. Common in coastal and montane pine.

Spore print · Dull cinnamon-brown

Pungent Slippery Jack

Pungent Slippery Jack

Boletes

A dull grey-buff to olive-brown slippery jack whose ringless stalk is finely peppered with brown dots. It gives off an unusually strong, sweet, spicy aroma.

Spore print · Cinnamon-brown

Aspen Scaber Stalk

Aspen Scaber Stalk

Boletes

A North American scaber stalk of aspen groves, with an orange-brown cap, dark scabers even when young, and pale flesh that greys and takes on lilac tones when cut.

Spore print · Ochre-brown

Chicken Fat Mushroom

Chicken Fat Mushroom

Boletes

A slender bright yellow bolete with a slimy, red-streaked cap and cottony veil fragments on the margin. It grows only with eastern white pine, often in large troops.

Spore print · Cinnamon-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

Slippery Jill

Slippery Jill

Boletes

A glutinous orange-yellow pine bolete with salmon-tinted pores and a thick, baggy, gelatinous ring that stains brown. Everything about it tends to be sticky.

Spore print · Cinnamon-brown

Painted Suillus

Painted Suillus

Boletes

A striking bolete clothed in shaggy brick-red scales over a yellow ground, with large radially arranged yellow pores. It grows only with five-needle pines.

Spore print · Olive-brown

False Chanterelle

False Chanterelle

Gilled

A soft orange funnel-capped mushroom with crowded, repeatedly forked, deeply decurrent true gills and a white spore print. Despite the chanterelle-like shape it belongs to the bolete order, not the chanterelles.

Spore print · White to cream

Barometer Earthstar

Barometer Earthstar

Puffballs

A tough star-shaped gasteroid fungus whose thick rays open in damp weather and curl shut again as they dry. Despite the name it is not a true earthstar, sitting instead among the bolete relatives.

Spore print · Dark brown