Boletus variipes

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by Michael Kuo

One of several mushrooms frequently mistaken for Boletus edulis, Boletus variipes has a dry, tan cap (as opposed to the sticky, reddish brown cap of Boletus edulis). In addition, its reticulation is more prominent, and it has a penchant for oaks and other eastern hardwoods (Boletus edulis, while occasionally found under eastern hardwoods, is more partial to western conifers).

Boletus varripes is reported as edible and good; I have not tried it.

Description:

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with hardwoods, especially oaks--but also with conifers; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously; summer and fall, according to most authors; eastern North America and Texas.

Cap: 6-20 cm; convex, becoming broadly convex or almost flat; dry; finely velvety at times; often becoming cracked in age; tan to brownish; margin even.

Pore Surface: White when young, becoming yellowish or olive; not bruising; 1-2 pores per mm; tubes 1-3 cm deep.

Stem: 8-15 cm long; 1-3.5 cm thick; more or less equal, or enlarging to base; dry; solid; whitish or grayish brown; usually fairly prominently reticulate with whitish or brownish reticulation, or only finely reticulate.

Flesh: White; not staining on exposure.

Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: Cap dark amber, with a blackish purple zone with ammonia or KOH, pale olive or negative with iron salts. Flesh pale pinkish orange, then gray with KOH, negative or gray with ammonia, slowly gray or yellowish with iron salts.

Spore Print: Olive brown.

Microscopic Features: Spores 12-18 x 4-6 µ; smooth; subfusiform.

REFERENCES: Peck, 1888. (Coker & Beers, 1943; Snell & Dick, 1970; Smith & Thiers, 1971; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1981; Phillips, 1991/2005; Both, 1993; Horn, Kay & Abel, 1993; Bessette, Roody & Bessette, 2000; Halling & Mueller, 2003; Roody, 2003; McNeil, 2006.)

Boletus variipes var. fagicola has a very dark brown cap and stem. It was originally recorded from Michigan by Smith & Thiers (1971), but is common throughout eastern North America, and was documented in Costa Rica by Halling in 1997.

See also the very similar Boletus atkinsonii.

Further Online Information:

Boletus variipes in Smith & Thiers, 1971
Boletus variipes at Roger's Mushrooms

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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2003, March). Boletus variipes. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/boletus_variipes.html