Boletus pinophilus
Pine Bolete
Names
Scientific name: Boletus pinophilus
English name: Pine Bolete
(other scientific names include B. pinicola, B. edulis f. pinicola)
Description
This is generally an early fruiting species that is closely related to the much better known Boletus edulis (Penny Bun or Cep). It is one to look out for when under conifer as this species is ectomycorrhizal with pine and certainly favours Scotland.
One of the boletes (a generic name given to those fungi which produce umbrella-like, soft-fleshed structures with tubes beneath the cap), these fungi release their spores from basidia that are tucked away inside the tube-like structures that hang vertically beneath the cap forming a rather soft and sponge-like fertile surface. Many of the boletes are considered to be edible and they are a popular group with beginners as many of the species can be recognised from photographs. Understanding what puts them into different genera is a little more complex – as ever with the fungi!
The genus Boletus is characterised by robust fruiting bodies usually with the stipe swollen and bulbous below. The stipe often has a raised network of lines (reticulum), most obvious immediately below the junction of the stipe and the cap and the colour of the reticulum can be useful in determining the species. The spore print is olivaceous brown in Boletus, as it is for many of the boletes (but definitely not all – watch out for black, pinkish and purple-brown).
B. pinophilus has lovely rich red-brown colours on the cap and stipe. The cap is generally hemispherical and can reach 25cm across. It often has a rather greasy feel and is distinctly nobbly or dimpled on the surface. The pores of the tubes start out yellowish and become increasingly reddish brown with age. The reticulum is whitish or red-brown and is sometimes hard to see against the background red-brown of the stipe.
(more information about some of these terms and fungal lifestyles).
Boletus pinophilus (Pine Bolete). Note red-brown rather dimpled cap with a pale reticulation on the apex of the stipe.
Fruiting:
In Scotland this species starts to appear in May (5 records), peaks in September (108 records) and tails off in October (10 records) with no records so far out with this time period (Based on FRDBI 2012).
Habitat:
Thought to always associate with pine. It does seem to like old growth forests but turns up in mature plantations too, particularly in poor, acid, sandy soils including dry lichen heath with pine present.
Distribution:
The Checklist gives the distribution as England ‘and Scotland ‘common’. The total number of sites for this species on the Fungal Records Database of Britain and Ireland (FRDBI, 2012) is 232 with 194 of these from Scotland – a species with most of its distribution in the north of the UK but still plenty of gaps on the map (right).
The pores of the tubes start out yellowish and become increasingly reddish brown with age. The reticulum is whitish or red-brown
All above photos Liz Holden
Boletus edulis (Penny Bun or Cep) for comparison. Note absence of the red/brown colours of P.pinophilus.
Please remember to submit your records to your local recording group or via the Scottish Fungi online recording form.
Liz Holden August 2012