About this fungus
Ruby Bolete is a fungus in the Boletaceae family. Its habitat and field characteristics are summarised below.
A small, slender European bolete with a velvety ruby-red cap, lemon-yellow pores and a stem that is yellow near the top and increasingly red below. Damaged pores and flesh may slowly blue.
What to check
Check for pores rather than gills, a red cap, yellow pore surface, red-over-yellow stem and no ring or volva. Record blue staining and cut the fruit body lengthwise to observe flesh colours and any red dots near the stem base. Modern Hortiboletus identification often also needs spores, cap-surface microscopy and geography.
Variation
Young caps can be vivid scarlet or ruby red, then fade to pink-red, olive-red or patchy brown with age and sun. Pores become greener as spores mature. Blue staining varies from weak to clear and may be slow.
Lookalikes
Hortiboletus engelii, Hortiboletus bubalinus and other red-capped xerocomoid boletes overlap closely. Stem colours, flesh beneath the cap skin, basal dots, staining and microscopic features must be considered together. Bright cap colour alone is not a species-level character.
Habitat and range
Mycorrhizal with broadleaved trees, especially oak, beech, lime and hornbeam, in woodland, parks and gardens. The strict modern species is European and Levantine; similar red boletes in other regions require local names and references.
Food safety
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
Asier Sarasua Garmendia / CC BY-SA 3.0