Photo Collage - Boletus morrisii

This bolete is a very photogenic mushroom. Its pores start out bright red and fade to orange. The color of the cap varies greatly with the age of the mushroom, starting out dark purplish-red and almost velvety, aging to drab olive green and brown. While Roger's Mushrooms lists its edibility as "unknown", Bolete Bill has been heard to proclaim it delicious. It is a dense mushroom, heavy and solid. We found it in association with oaks in southeastern Connecticut, and hope to taste it the next time we come across a good specimen.

From Roger's Mushrooms:

fungus colour: Red or redish or pink, Brown

normal size: 5-15cm

cap type: Convex to shield shaped

stem type: Simple stem

flesh: Flesh discolours when cut, bruised or damaged

spore colour: Olivaceous

habitat: Grows in woods, Grows on the ground

Boletus morrisii Pk.Red-speckled Bolete Cap 3-10cm across, broadly convex; deep smoky brown to olivaceous, becoming reddish brown at center, with orange-yellow margin; dry, finely pulverulent, then smooth. Tubes usually deeply depressed around stem; yellow to ochre, reddish where bruised. Pores small; orange to brick red. Stem 40-80 x 8-15mm, equal to slightly swollen; bright yellow with very distinct and quite widely separate bright red squamules or dots nearly to apex. Flesh yellow with discolored areas of vinaceous or dark purple, especially in stem. Odor not distinctive. Taste not distinctive. Spores ellipsoid-subfusiform, 10-15(16) x 3.5-5.5(6.5)µ. Deposit olivaceous. Habitat gregarious or even subcaespitose in deciduous woods. Rather rare. Found from Massachusetts to northern Georgia, not known from western North America. Season July-September. Edibility not known.