Species details
Bitter beech bolete
Caloboletus calopus
Inedible
Photo: Tomasz Sobczak · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photo source · License
Description
A colourful bolete with a pale cap, yellow pores and a yellow-red reticulate stem.
Identification features
The flesh often blues when cut; strong bitterness makes the species inedible.
Identification checklist
Check the entire fruitbody for identification. A colourful bolete with a pale cap, yellow pores and a yellow-red reticulate stem. The flesh often blues when cut; strong bitterness makes the species inedible. Typical habitat: Mainly deciduous and mixed woodland on base-rich soils, often with beech.
Detailed features
- Cap
- 5–15 cm, hemispherical to convex, greyish to brownish, dry and smooth.
- Hymenophore
- Yellow tubes and small yellow pores that bruise blue-green.
- Stem
- 5–15 × 4–6 cm, stout, yellow above and with a red reticulum over a yellow ground below.
- Flesh
- White to slightly yellowish, turning blue-green when cut.
- Smell
- Slightly sour.
- Taste
- Strongly bitter; tasting wild mushrooms is not a recommended identification method.
- Spore print
- Olive-brown.
Size
- Cap diameter
- 5–15 cm
- Stem height
- 5–15 cm
- Stem diameter
- 4–6 cm
Habitat
Mainly deciduous and mixed woodland on base-rich soils, often with beech.
Fruiting period
June, July, August, September, October
Ecology
- Trophic mode
- Mycorrhizal
- Host trees
- Beech (Fagus)
- Substrate
- Forest soil
- Soil
- Calcareous
- Notes
- Mycorrhizal mainly with broadleaved trees; often in beech and mixed woodland.
How to separate similar species
Compare especially with these similar species: Rubroboletus satanas, Suillellus luridus, Rubroboletus rhodoxanthus. Check the combination of cap shape and colour, spore-bearing surface, stem, flesh changes and habitat. A single feature or photograph is not enough; if the key characters do not match the description, do not treat the identification as confirmed.
Similar species
- Satan's bolete (Rubroboletus satanas) DANGEROUS
Satan’s bolete has red pores when mature, whereas this species has yellow pores.
- Rooting bolete (Caloboletus radicans)
Rooting bolete usually has a paler, less red stem and often a more distinctly rooting base.
Interesting facts
Did you know? The combination of yellow pores, a red-reticulate stem, blue staining and strong bitterness is highly characteristic.