Albatrellus flettii
Ceska Mykol. 26(4): 198. 1972.
Common Name: none
Synonym: Albatrellopsis flettii (Morse ex Pouzar) Audet
For descriptions see Castellano et al., Morse, & Pouzar.
Terrestrial, solitary to scattered, usually in small clusters in soil under conifers (especially western hemlock) and in mixed forests; uncommon, fruiting from fall through mid-winter along the northern coast and in the Cascade Range.
Edible.
Albatrellus flettii can be recognized by the nearly smooth, bluish gray cap, tiny white pores, and central to lateral white stipe. Even rarer is Neoalbatrellus subcaeruleoporus, which forms smaller blue caps, blue pores, and a central blue stipe that turns rusty brown in age. It is known in California from only a few specimens from Humboldt and Mendocino counties. Boletopsis grisea is similar but grayish to black with only a hint of blue, has a bitter taste, and its spores are angular-nodulose, inamyloid, and pale brown in deposit.
Arora, D. (1986). Mushrooms Demystified. Ten Speed Press: Berkeley, CA. 959 p.
Audet, S. (2010). Essai de découpage systématique du genre Scutiger (Basidiomycota): Albatrellopsis, Albatrellus, Polyporoletus, Scutiger et description de six nouveaux genres. Mycotaxon 111(1): 431-464. (PDF)
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.
Castellano, M.A., Cázares, E., Fondrick, B. & Dreisbach, T. (2003). Handbook to additional fungal species of special concern in the Northwest Forest Plan (Gen. Tech Rep. PNW-GTR-572). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station: Portland, OR. 144 p. (PDF)
Desjardin, D.E., Wood, M.G. & Stevens, F.A. (2015). California Mushrooms: The Comprehensive Identification Guide. Timber Press: Portland, OR. 560 p.
Gilbertson, R.L. & Ryvarden, L. (1986). North American Polypores, vol. 1. Fungiflora: Oslo, Norway. 433 p. (PDF)
Ginns, J. (2017). Polypores of British Columbia (Fungi: Basidiomycota). British Columbia: Victoria, BC. 260 p. (PDF)
Morse, E.E. (1941). A new polypore in Washington. Mycologia 33(5): 506-509. (PDF)
Overholts, L.O. (1953). The Polyporaceae of the United States, Alaska, and Canada. University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor, MN. 466 p. (PDF)
Pouzar, Z. 1972. Contribution to the knowledge of the genus Albatrellus (Polyporaceae) I. A conspectus of species of the North Temperate Zone. Ceská Mykologie. 26(4):194-200. (PDF)
Siegel, N. & Schwarz, C. (2016). Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast. Ten Speed Press: Berkeley, CA. 601 p.
