About this fungus
Bay Bolete is a fungus in the Boletaceae family. Its habitat and field characteristics are summarised below.
A chestnut to dark bay-brown bolete with a smooth, well-proportioned cap, yellow-green pores and a plain brownish stem without a raised net pattern.
What to check
Press the pore surface and look for blue-green bruising. The pores begin pale yellow and become olive-yellow or greenish with age. The pale flesh may blue slightly above the tubes, while the stem remains smooth or finely fibrillose rather than reticulate. There is no ring or volva.
Variation
Young caps can be finely velvety, becoming smoother and slightly sticky when wet. Pore bruising varies in strength and is usually clearer than any colour change in the flesh.
Lookalikes
Penny Bun has a swollen stem with a fine pale raised network and flesh that does not blue. Other brown boletes can bruise blue, so the combination of bay cap, yellow-green pores, plain stem and mainly coniferous habitat matters more than bruising alone.
Habitat and range
A mycorrhizal woodland fungus, most often with pine, spruce and other conifers but also recorded with broadleaf trees. It fruits on soil and litter in coniferous and mixed woodland across temperate regions.
Food safety
Choice edible.
Use this profile to learn what to examine and compare, not as proof that a mushroom is safe to eat. Check the whole specimen and every important lookalike before reaching an identification.
Photographs
H. Krisp / CC BY 3.0
Horst74 / CC BY 3.0
Jerzy Opioła / CC BY-SA 4.0