Boletes

“Boletus” is an important genus of pored/tubed (instead of gilled) mushrooms, including the undisputed king of edible fungi – Boletus edulis, called by the English more often by its French or Italian name (“cep” or “porcino”) than by its proper English name of “penny bun.”

“Boletaceae” is the family this genus belongs to, which consists mainly, but not entirely, of other pored/tubed mushrooms. Most are symbiotic with trees.

“Bolete” is a non-scientific term for any mushroom with pores/tubes.

There are three main genera of bolete which are of great interest to foragers, because most of the species are edible and only one or two are poisonous and these are relatively easy to avoid. It is also for this reason that many beginners start here.

Boletus

Penny Bun (Boletus edulis)

Penny Bun (Boletus edulis)

Along with the penny bun this genus contains some of the best edible wild fungi, although many of them are quite hard to find. There is one other species which is usually more common than a penny bun, and rivals it as a quality edible. It is called a bay bolete (B.badius), and is easily recognisable by a dark brown cap and yellow pores which stain blue when pressed. It also has a distinctive smell which leads some people to rank it as even better than B. edulis. I’m certainly always pleased to find it.

Bay Bolete (Boletus badius)

Bay Bolete (Boletus badius)

Beyond these two species it becomes increasingly difficult to identify which species you’ve got, and anything with brightly-coloured pores or exhibiting radical colour-changes to the flesh when cut open should be treated with caution. Many of the technicolor boletes are edible (at least when cooked), but you’ve got to be a bit careful if you’re going to experiment with these.

Leccinum

Leccinum aurantiacum

Leccinum aurantiacum

The leccinums tend have longer, thinner stems than their boletus cousins, and these stems are usually covered in downy scales. Identifying to species is not easy, and usually you have to just guess, based on the colour of the cap and associated tree. One pale brown species, which grows in mossy, boggy places, should be avoided on the grounds of rarity (ghost bolete – Leccinum holopus) but the rest, which are either brown or orange, are all edible. None of them quite make it into the same class as the best of the boletes, but they are relatively common and very widely collected. They are often dried, both to cope with the amount of them that are sometimes available, and because this improves the flavour. Some are poisonous raw, and change colour when cooked.

Suillus

Jersey Cow Bolete (Suillus bovinus)

Jersey Cow Bolete (Suillus bovinus)

The last major group of boletes are softer than others, slimy when wet and grow in association with conifers. Probably the best known of these is called a slippery jack (Suillus luteus), which always appears near Scot’s pine. Some people consider this a good edible, others find it just a little too slippery; it’s another one that is better dried. One species (S. bovinus – jersey cow bolete) is particularly prolific, and in a good year it carpets conifer woodlands all over Sussex. There are numerous other members of the genus, all of them edible, none choice.

 

14 thoughts on “Boletes

  1. John

    I think I’ve found a brown birch boletes but unsure. Could it be mistaken for anything poisonous before I have it for lunch.

    Reply
  2. Rebecca

    Hello Geoff!

    Please can you help…. are all Boletes edible? Keep finding light brown capped ones with yellow pores underneath. Stem is slightly yellow with small flecks of red??? Found them under pine trees.

    Would be grateful of your thoughts? Kind Regards Rebecca

    Reply
    1. Geoff Dann Post author

      Not all boletes are edible, no. Some will give you a serious stomach ache, but none will kill you. I’m afraid I can’t identify fungi from descriptions though.

      Reply
  3. Kirsty

    Yesterday I found an Orange Birch Bolette which I understood to be edible (according to 3 reference books), but I see in your book ‘Edible mushrooms’ you have it marked as poisonous, which has now confused me.
    Can you provide any further info please? Many thanks

    Reply
    1. Geoff Dann Post author

      Hi Kirsty.

      In my book, Orange Birch Bolete is marked “Poisonous->edible”. As explained in the notes below, this means it is poisonous raw, and needs to be cooked for 15 minutes to make it edible.

      Geoff

      Reply
  4. Jon

    Came across one today (in Scottish Highlands) that has me completely flummoxed to the point where I feel like it must be either surprisingly rare or some kind of hybrid–photos make it look more yellow than it is (I’d say it’s a pale orange and quite distinctive in that respect). No peppery taste that I could spot from tiny nibble. Lovely mushroom-y smell. Nothing common seems to have this pore colour.

    Photos at: reades.com/Bolete/IMG_0891.jpg reades.com/Bolete/IMG_0890.jpg reades.com/Bolete/IMG_0889.jpg reades.com/Bolete/IMG_0892.jpg

    Since you’re UK-based any ideas gratefully received!

    Reply
  5. Adam P

    Hi Geoff,

    Great blog post, thanks! If you could help me with narrowing down some boletes I found yesterday it would be really appreciated 🙂

    They have yellow pores and dark brown spores, the top of the cap is dark brown, peeling off to reveal white flesh underneath. The stem is light brown, and thickest at the base, with white mycelia I believe. A vertical cross section reveals white flesh throughout, with some minor red staining around the edges of the cap.

    Photos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/5E5KLZT4uTr37sc27

    Any ideas would be really appreciated!! Thanks 🙂

    Reply
  6. Michael F

    Hi Geoff,
    Came across this beauty in an area of clear conifer and older british woodland today. Reminds me of the sort my old mum used to harvest in the New Forest years ago. Does it look safe to eat? there are plenty more in the same area this year but hardly saw any last year. Your comments appreciated

    Photo are here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18C35jj_pZ_lDXEx5ZiPbTHOHO2B2vomd/view?usp=sharing, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HyNRbqeFh0YYoBD8irbrM63jFEtoQwhz/view?usp=sharing, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K3Z4jUr2aF4KQPNyYfruuayw2RJ-F-Yd/view?usp=sharing, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MVZPAM_b8GjgiVhOZ6NOPksOH2lupLI7/view?usp=sharing, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MW4qK3pM6WOi2c4ks6wY4iqzcaaYA0xD/view?usp=sharing

    Hope the links work!

    Reply
      1. Michael F

        Thanks Geoff,
        I have found about 3kg of them in the area, most a lot smaller/younger. Should I cook them for about 10 minutes or so as per what I have read in a number of places? Plan on slicing most of them and hanging them to air-dry so I can use them over the winter.

        Are you doing any foraging events in the north derbyshire area in the coming months?
        Kind regards

        Mike

        Reply

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