The Amateur Mycologist #9 - Boletus edulis - The PorcinisteemCreated with Sketch.

in science •  7 years ago  (edited)

There are a few wild mushrooms which are highly sought after for culinary purposes. In time we will talk about all of them - truffles, chanterelles, morels, lobster mushrooms, horns of plenty ("trumpets of death"). But today we discuss what many consider the king of all mushrooms: Boletus edulis, most commonly known as the Porcini.

Most people have never tried hunting for wild mushrooms, let alone eating them. Nonetheless, Porcinis are well known all over the world. Their taste is universally acclaimed and, for many, their aesthetic is nothing less than the icon of the entire Kingdom of Fungi.


Take a look at that mushroom. Few specimens are as exciting and visually satisfying to find as a mature, undeteriorated Porcini, or one of its close cousins. B.edulis and B.edulis-like mushrooms grow all over the world. You can find these mushrooms from China, through Russia, across Europe and North Africa, and all the way across the ocean in North America and parts of Mexico. As long as you're in the northern hemisphere, you can find some variation of this mushroom in a forest near you from June through November.

Why do I say "nearly identical" and "B.edulis-like?" As with so much of mycology since the advent of DNA analysis, the old paradigms of B.edulis identification have changed. It used to be mycologists were satisfied referring to B.edulis as roughly one widespread species of the Boletus genus. However in the last decade, DNA analysis has again shown that what was once considered a single overarching species is actually a humongous diversity of genetically unique mushrooms.

As a result, if we're being technical, true B.Edulis species probably only grows in Europe, whereas the rest of the world has B.edulis lookalikes. Luckily, this distinction is mostly academic. For forest traipsing bolete hunters around the world it changes almost nothing. You might end up with a Boletus rex-veris, pictured below, instead of a B.Edulis, but you'll still be satisfied.


If you're hunting in North America and interested in discerning the exact species of a B.edulis type mushroom, you can use Michael Kuo's key to B.Edulis, or buy an identification book exclusively for boletes. However, for those of you less inclined to extreme detail, there are certain macro characteristics which can clarify if you're within the broad range of B.edulis-like species and variants.


First, as with every species of Boletus, the spore surface is porous.

If you cut the cap in half, you can see in the cross-section that the pores are in fact thin tubules meshed together to make a cohesive whole.

This pore surface starts out white, then becomes yellow with age, eventually turning olive brown. If you bruise the pores with your finger, they should not change color.

The cap of the mushroom is usually plump, convex when young and then flattening out in the older specimens, with the edges sometimes turning up to reveal the pore surface a bit. The cap can grow to nearly a foot in diameter, although most specimens will be less wide. The cap color of the true B.edulis is reddish brown and gets darker as the mushroom gets older. But several close relatives can be lighter in color.

The stem of B.edulis has as much character as the cap. Often wider at the bottom and tapering toward the top, it should have a consistent white flesh throughout when young. The height varies widely as well, from 3 inches up to 10 inches. Young mushrooms should be undifferentiated white flesh and firm, rather than spongy. When you cut the flesh it might discolor to brown or red.

One thing to look for in judging the quality of the mushroom is to bifurcate the stem and look for the bore holes of insects inside. Ideally the flesh should be white through and through - but often it will be cut through with insect tunnels. In that case, you can cut away the eaten parts and possibly salvage the remainder.

One of the great things about B.edulis and its variant and species is that there are, as far as I know, almost no inherently poisonous lookalikes. There is only one awesome looking, probably poisonous Boletus mushroom I know about, referred to "Satan's Bolete". We'll do a future post all about it, but as you can see here, it is all red on the underside and easy to distinguish.

update 1

update:

So i was reading a comment by @jimithyashford which drew me back to a "Boletes of North America" by Bessette, Bessette and Roody - and in reading I found reference to at least one more poisonous boletr - at least for some - B.sensibilis.. Indeed some people appear unaffected by the mushroom while others suffer terrible gastrointestinal distress.

I put this here to highlight **that i cannot be aware of every lookalike or make you aware of every lookalike. I'm sure there are more boletes which are in fact poisonous some of the time which i have not mentioned. It is with this in mind that i again encourage you to take these posts as an introduction to mushroom identification - a starting point from which to jump off and gain a more in depth and rigorous knowledge.

I think the risks/intentions may be worth a post all on ts own in the future.


There are four concerns with picking, cooking and eating B.edulis-like mushrooms:

  1. Making sure you don't have a poisonous bolete - like b.satanas or b.sensibilis. one method is to reject any boleteswhose flesh changes color, or at least turns blue.
  2. The possibility of a personalized allergic reaction - which of course can be serious and is almost impossible to predict.
  3. The possibility that the mushroom is growing on ground contaminated with heavy metals, which the mushroom absorbs into its flesh.
  4. The possibility of accidentally picking a species or variant which, although not poisonous, just isn't very palatable. There are tons of these - A good example would be the Tylopilus felleus mushroom, which looks very similar to B.edulis, but instead of being delicious, is terribly bitter.
    The simplest way to tell the difference is either to taste the mushroom for bitterness, spitting out the taste without swallowing, or look for "reticulation" on the stem. Reticulation is a net-like pattern sometimes found on mushrooms, often on the stems. B.edulis-like mushrooms have a whitish pattern on a brownish stem - whereas T.felleus has a dark pattern on a white stem.

B.edulis and B.edulis-like mushrooms are renowned around the world as the some of the best edible wild mushrooms. If you want to try hunting for a feast, I would suggest connecting with your local mycological society or taking a mycological trip with trained mycologists to become familiar with the process in person. Until then, keep your eyes peeled for these marvelous Boletes.


Do not rely on this, or any other Amateur Mycology post in deciding whether to eat a wild mushroom - use one of the many resources designed specifically, by professional mycologists to guide people in hunting and eating wild mushrooms.


Macroscopic Features:

  • Cap = Convex at first, then flattens as it gets older, ranging in size from 2.8 to 11.8in (7-30cm). Gets darker as it matures, generally reddish brown and lighter around the edges. A bit sticky to the touch, especially if wet.

  • Spore surface = fairly deep, whitish pores when younger, yellowing with age until finally ending almost light olive. The pores don't change color when damaged or pressed with a finger,

  • Flesh = White. Sometimes a bit of brown near the base of the stem. Firm when young, becoming spongy when older. Mixed reports about whether damage changes color of the flesh - wikipedia says possibly light brown or light red change. Boletales says no change. No distinct taste

  • Stem ("stipe") = 3.1 - 9.8in (8-25 cm) high and up to 2.8in (7cm) thick. Often club like, cylindrical but sometimes with a taper, sometimes bulbous or swollen looking. Reticulation on the exterior of the stem is well defined, fading near the bottom of the stem. White pattern on darker background. Bifurcation should show an undifferentiated white flesh through the stem.

  • Spore Print = Olive Brown

  • Ecology ("How it grows.") = Mycorrhizal (In a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship) with certain trees - primarily conifers (sprice, fir and pines) as well as some deciduous tree - (beech and birch). Therefore will often be found by these trees.

  • Distribution = The genetically true B. Edulis may only really be in Europe. However, B.Edulis like mushrooms span the globe.

  • Edibility = The true B.Edulis is commonly considered the king of edible wild mushrooms. Highly sought after and very expensive to buy. The many B.Edulis lookalikes are similarly sought after, however do beware of poisonous or bitter lookalikes, like "Satan's Bolete" and Tylopilus felleus in your hunts.

  • Other Traits = Often B.Edulis like mushrooms will have bugs in their flesh, as bugs like to eat it as much as people. Cut away the buggy portion if the mushroom is not too old and it can still be harvested.



Disclaimer (Yes - A Bigger Disclaimer)

Since I've started to post these in the #foraging tag, I want to be clear about the risks of mushroom hunting. The fact is, hunting mushrooms as food is an inherently risky activity. These posts are species introductions intended to provide entertaining and edifying reading to readers unfamiliar with mushrooms. Do not rely on this, or any other Amateur Mycology post in deciding whether to eat a wild mushroom - use one of the many resources designed specifically, by professional mycologists to guide people in hunting and eating wild mushrooms.

As I frequently talk about, the entire Kingdom of fungi has been in flux since the advent of DNA analysis and as only an amateur mycologist, dealing only with macroscopic identification, my knowledge should be taken as introductory rather than comprehensive or encyclopedic - AND THESE POSTS SHOULD NOT BE USED TO IDENTIFY A MUSHROOM AND EAT IT. I could easily be wrong in identifying a species or describing a characteristic. Even trained mycologists have made mistakes and poisoned themselves in the course of their activities! As a result, I have and will continue to say in these posts that the safest approach is always going to be abstaining from eating your finds and, it goes without saying, you ingest wild mushrooms at your own risk.

Having said that, many people do take part in the hobby for foraging purposes, and doing so with an eye to detail and with a reasonable methodology is important. My hope in writing these posts is to inculcate good macro-identification habits in my readers and begin to eliminate the irrational fears which surround mushrooms and replace them with knowledge and a healthy respect. My suggestion for those who want to forage and have no actual hunting experience would be to forgo eating any mushroom until you find a fungi knowledgeable local or the local mycological society to hunt with. That's a great way to get comfortable with your local edibles make friends and be safe.


Have a Mushroom you want help identifying? - leave a message on the Steemit Mycology discord channel.

https://discord.gg/JJgEW2y

For The Online Mycokey program look Here

For A Crash Course On How To Identify A Mushroom Read The Amatuer Mycologist #3

For a Glossary Of Relevant Mycological Terms, Micheal Kuo's Website Provides


Information Sources:

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/boletus_edulis.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boletus_edulis
http://www.mykoweb.com/CAF/species/Boletus_edulis.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubroboletus_satanas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tylopilus_felleus
http://boletales.com/genera/boletus/b-edulis/

Photo Sources:

1
[2](By Dezidor, Own Work, CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), via Wikimedia Commons)
[3](By Ron Pastorino, Mushroom Observer, CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0), via Wikimedia Commons)
[4](By Alinja Own work GFD via Wikimedia Commons)
[5](By Alinja (Own work) GFDL
[6](By photo taken by Archenzo in an Italian wood Piacenza's Appennino Own work GFDL, vie Wikicommons)
[7](By Tylopilus_felleus_060914c.jpg: bernd gliwa derivative work: Ak ccmCC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons)


Check Out My Other Content:

The Amateur Myclogist
Chicken of the Woods
Piqued
What Puts The Wind In A Solar Sail

I hope you've enjoyed this content, if so an upvote and a resteem are always welcome!

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!
Sort Order:  

This post received a 3.5% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @dber! For more information, click here!

Awesome work as always @dber. I'm going to start bringing my phone with me on some of these hikes I go on (just moved to Boone, NC) The climate seems to be very conducive to fungus growth and I've already seem some striking mushrooms, yet I didn't have a clue what they were. Once I start documenting them with photos and spore print I'll definitely join in the discord!

Excellent! So far it's me and one other person in there - but I have faith in the mid to long term.

If you do take photos, consider reading over the "How To ID" post - it will give you a clear idea of what information is necessary to maximize our chances of a successful identification.

I always have trouble with Boletes, many of them look very similar, and add in a little real-world variety in size and shape and it can be hard to tell. We get a lot of bitter and plaid boletes in my part of the country. I don't find them palatable.

Depending on where you are it might make sense to buy a bolete specific id book - i have "Boletes of North America". It is comprehensive and specific to the continent. But even this book is circumspect about always getting a clear identification with boletes.

However it sounds like you have a bead on your local bolete options. Personally, i've never encountered a clear B.edulis-like bolete in and around NYC - only in eastern Europe. However several sources indicate they do exist in north america. I'll keep looking - meanwhile i'm going to update the post as reading over the bolete book has revealed at least one other intensely gastrically poisonous bolete species, B.sensibilis.

This is an awesome post! Seeing my son here engaged in conversation was proof that my upvote and resteem I already did was so much more valuable! Thanks for helping bring us together!

Wait, did you end up here independently?

YES!!! i look for foraging and mushroom posts on here every day!

So funny! Well there will be many more to come now that I've found the foraging tag

I love eating mushrooms!

Do you forage?

My mom @wholesomeroots does and I enjoy what she gets!... But I don't tho, I'm not quite the outdoorsy type

Your mother is on steemit? The barriers to me getting my mother on Steemit are so numerous as to be completely impossible. She would sooner fly into the air like a bird.

Lol. My mom is the one to actually introduce me to steemit is the funny thing though

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Your mom is awesome - my mother introduced me to crochet, and she wasn't particularly good at it.
(Not to say my mother isn't awesome - just, you know - she ain't introducing me to cutting edge crypto social networks)

Lol!

Lol, funnier still to randomly bump into you on a mushroom post! Maybe they can talk you into collecting pounds of chanterelle with.me!

Dinner is served!

If only i were so lucky :)

Thank you - very interesting

Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by DBER from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, and someguy123. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.

If you like what we're doing please upvote this comment so we can continue to build the community account that's supporting all members.

It's incredible how quickly they grow. I should've known, but never thought about fungi having DNA. The metamorphosis is easier to picture through it's DNA altering. Interesting.

Not only do they have DNA but their method of reproduction - the widespread dispersal of spores - causes species to form off from each other fairly quickly in the scheme of things.

Awesome mushroom! What a giant. Is that one of the biggest varieties or is anything bigger than 1ft in diameter? Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

B.Edulis can get quite massive - but as we continue on our mycological exploration we will encounter mushrooms capable of becoming even larger.

Awesome! And are the larger ones edible as well?

The one i have in mind is ;)

Epic!

I've got a small mushroom in mind for the next post - but after that I'll talk about this monstrosity

Right on. All in good time.

At least Satan's Bolete really warns you right off the bat with it's bright red stem, doesn't it, sort of like a rattle snake's rattle!

Satan's bolete really looks like a demon imp. It just needs little conniving eyes. If your bolete looks like a demonic imp, it may not be edible. :)

I think it bruises blue too doesn't it, whereas the Boletus edulis does not. is that correct?

The flesh of the satans bolete does appear to bruise blue, not sure about the pore surface.

Most sources say the real B.edulis does not change color - but there was a little talk about a light reddish or brownish staining sometimes where the flesh is damaged. I would chalk this up to the B.edulis vs B.edulis-like distinctio

Anecdotal addition - in searching for B.edulis like mushrooms near Finland outside St.Petersburg my wife's uncle would cut the mushroom at the stem and taste it to see if it was bitter. If so, sadly, we left them, though i think parboiling might have solved that problem. These were not satans boletes but something much closer looking to the edulis.

Actually as long as we're on the topic - apparently some people in Europe and california seem to think parboiling the satan's bolete might make it edible - sort of like Gary's done with Amanita Muscaria. I for one am not going to try :)

those are beautiful mushrooms thanks a lot for sharing and keep on posting ;)

Lots more species to come!

Congratulations @dber! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

Award for the number of comments

Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here

If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

By upvoting this notification, you can help all Steemit users. Learn how here!

Boletes are a good motivator for everyone to take a photo of the underside of a mushroom, too, if they are going to ask anyone to think about identification.

We see lots of good bolete harvests from Steemians in Eastern Europe. This must be one of the more popular mushrooms in that region!

Thanks for sourcing your photos so well, too -- and using photos with Creative Commons licenses.

For sure - and actually that's what I really want to inculcate - and eventually have people either comment in links or drop off imgur albums on the mycology discord channel for assistance in group identification

That 4th photo shows the reticulation on the stem really well.

I'm always hoping for boletes to show themselves in my yard. I've planted some conifers , like a larch, hoping for some mycorhizzal action sooner or later, lol. I would sure like to see a few Boletus edulis fruit this fall!

Great post! Now I know what to look for next time I got out hunting. Unfortunately that won't be till fall arrives. Right now I'm only really confident with my chantrelle id skills. Now I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for the boletes. Thanks for the great info.

That's a great way to go about things ' get very very comfortable with one species at a time. If its available in your area try setting up a single hunt with a mycological association or knowledgeable forager - learning from other peoples experience on the ground is