Saturday, September 8, 2007

Boletes!


Howdy, Y'all.
The rain has delivered! While in the field, I came upon these boletes, which I'm pretty sure are Boletus rubellus. I'm not sure if I'm going to try eating them, given what the mushroom
expert
has to say about this species. Arora says this species may be edible, but as the old saw goes, "there are old mycologists, and there are bold mycologists, but there are few old, bold mycologists".
These particular mushrooms were in a pine plantation with some oaks mixed in, which has a pretty high water table. The stipes (stems) are pretty thin compared to other boletes, which can be quite bulbous. And, of course, there's the blue stain reaction, as demonstrated at the top right, there.

Boletes are ectomycorrhizal, which explains why they tend to be found only in certain types of forests.

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