Boletellus ananas

[ Basidiomycota > Boletales > Boletaceae > Boletellus . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

Wow. This Gulf Coast species is pretty incredible. It's hard to imagine a more distinctive bolete, with its red to pink colors and its coarsely shaggy, hairy scales. Other distinguishing features include the partial veil, which covers the young pore surface and later hangs as remnants on the cap margin; the bald stem; and the yellow pore surface that bruises blue and eventually discolors reddish brown.

I have not collected this mushroom myself, but I have studied collections sent to me by others. All of these were associated with dead trees (pines and oaks). Murrill (1910) called the species "epixylous" (growing from wood) and reported that Earle considered it "a wound parasite on pine trunks or about the base of living pine trees." Some later authors downplay the proximity to wood and treat the species as more or less terrestrial.

Thanks to Kommerina Daling, Mandi Foster, Jace Amaro, and Terri Cranfield for collecting, documenting, and preserving Boletellus ananas for study; their collections are deposited in The Herbarium of Michael Kuo.

Description:

Ecology: Uncertain. Possibly mycorrhizal with pines, but often reported growing from pine wood and roots and thus possibly saprobic; growing alone or gregariously; spring, summer, and fall; widely distributed along the Gulf Coast and in southeastern North America, extending at least as far south as Costa Rica. The illustrated and described collections are from Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina.

Cap: 4–10 cm; nearly round at first, becoming convex to broadly convex or flat in age; dry; scaly; the scales large, overlapping, and composed of aggregated woolly hairs; buff to pinkish when young, becoming darker red to purplish red at maturity; the surface becoming stretched and cracked to reveal yellowish flesh; the margin hung with veil remnants when young.

Pore Surface: Yellow when fresh; bruising quickly blue; discoloring reddish brown to brown with age; pores angular and large; tubes red, to 2 cm deep; at first covered by a whitish to pinkish partial veil.

Stem: 5–10 cm long; 1–2 cm thick; more or less equal; bald; dry; whitish to pinkish or yellowish; basal mycelium whitish.

Flesh: Whitish to yellowish; staining blue when sliced.

Odor: Not distinctive.

Spore Print: Medium brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores 15–19 x 6–7.5 µm; ellipsoid; longitudinally striate with 6–14 striae; thick-walled; golden in KOH; orangish-golden in Melzer's. Basidia 35–45 x 10–15 µm; clavate to abruptly clavate; 4-sterigmate; hyaline to golden in KOH, often filled with golden, refractive globules. Hymenial cystidia 50–65 x 10–17.5 µm; lageniform; smooth; think-walled; golden yellow, ochraceous, or hyaline in KOH. Pileipellis a cutis with aggregations of raised elements; elements 5–7.5 µm; wide, smooth, hyaline to yellowish or golden in KOH; walls or contents occasionally yellow-refractive; terminal cells cylindric with subclavate or rounded apices.

REFERENCES: (Curtis, 1848) Murrill, 1909. (Murrill, 1910; Saccardo, 1888; Coker & Beers, 1943; Singer, 1945; Smith & Thiers, 1971; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1981; Weber & Smith, 1985; Metzler & Metzler, 1992; Both, 1993; Bessette, Roody & Bessette, 2000; Halling & Mueller, 2005.) Herb. Kuo 08311601, 06201701, 07221710.

This website contains no information about the edibility or toxicity of mushrooms.

Spore print

Spores

Hymenial cystidia and basidia

Pileipellis elements

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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2017, November). Boletellus ananas. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/boletellus_ananas.html