Boletus smithii Thiers
Mycologia 57: 530. 1965.

Common Name: none

• Pileus

  Cap 7-15 cm broad, convex, broadly convex in age; margin at first incurved, eventually decurved, occasionally wavy; surface moist, not viscid, hygrophanous, uneven, with shallow depressions and pits, matted-tomentose to fibrillose, sometimes patchy-areolate or weathering to glabrous; color: wine-red over a background of cream-yellow, tan-buff, grey-brown, the margin usually paler; context white to cream-yellow, soft, 1.5-3.0 cm thick, bluing faintly near the tube layer, worm holes reddish; odor and taste mild.

• Hymenophore

  Pores 2-3/mm when young, approximately 1/mm at maturity, angular, not boletinoid, dingy yellow, darkening slightly with age, bluing faintly when bruised; tubes dull straw-yellow, slowly bluing when injured, 0.5-1.5 cm long, adnate to subdecurrent in youth, depressed at maturity.

• Stipe

  Stipe 7-15 cm long, 3.5-7.0 cm thick, dry, solid, subclavate, surface of apex minutely tomentose, matted tomentose to sometimes longitudinally ridged below, not reticulate; typically reddish at the apex, cream-yellow at base, surface not bluing where handled; context cream-yellow, bluing erratically when cut; partial veil absent.

• Spores

  13.5 x 16.0 (19.0) x 4.5-5.5 µm, spindle-shaped to narrowly ellipsoid in face view, smooth, thin-walled, one to multi-guttulate; spore print olive-brown.

• Habitat

  Solitary to scattered in mixed hardwood/conifer woods; known primarily from Mendocino Co., but also occurring in the Pacific Northwest and Idaho; fruiting shortly after the fall rains.

• Edibility

  Experience is limited, but there are some reports that Boletus smithii is edible.

• Comments

  Boletus smithii is an attractive, robust bolete distinguished by a wine-red flushed cap, pores that bruise blue and a non-reticulate stipe that is typically red at the apex and yellowish at the base. Boletus rubripes is similar in stature, but has a buff-brown cap and a stipe that is colored just the reverse of Boletus smithii--red at the base and yellowish at the apex.

• References

  Bessette, A.E., Roody, W.C. & Bessette, A.R. (2000). North American Boletes: A Color Guide to the Fleshy Pored Mushrooms. Syracuse University Press: Syracuse, NY. 400 p.
  Thiers, H.D. (1965). California Boletes. I. Mycologia 57(4): 524-534.
  Thiers, H.D. (1975). California Mushrooms—A Field Guide to the Boletes. Hafner Press: New York, NY. 261 p. (WWW)

• Other Descriptions and Photos
  • Michael Wood: Boletus smithii (CP)
  • Boletes of California: Boletus smithii (D & CP)
  • Beverly Hackett: Boletus smithii (I)
  • Beverly Hackett: Boletus smithii (I)
  • Mushroom Observer: Boletus smithii (CP)
  • Bessette et al. (2000): p. 157 (D), p. 311 (CP)
  • McKenny: p. 9 (D), p. 10 (CP)
  • Orr & Orr: p. 104 (D)
  • Phillips: p. 234 (D), p. 235 (CP)
  • Smith (1975): sp. 47 (D & CP)
  • Thiers (1975): p. 88 (D)
  • Tylutki: p. 31 (D & P)
  
  

  (D=Description; I=Illustration; P=Photo; CP=Color Photo)