Boletus smithii

Pileus
Cap 7-15 cm broad, convex, broadly convex in age; margin at first incurved, eventually decurved, occasionally wavy; surface moist, not viscid, hygrophanous, uneven, with shallow depressions and pits, matted-tomentose to fibrillose, sometimes patchy-areolate or weathering to glabrous; color: wine-red over a background of cream-yellow, tan-buff, grey-brown, the margin usually paler; context white to cream-yellow, soft, 1.5-3.0 cm thick, bluing faintly near the tube layer, worm holes reddish; odor and taste mild.

Hymenophore
Pores 2-3/mm when young, approximately 1/mm at maturity, angular, not boletinoid, dingy yellow, darkening slightly with age, bluing faintly when bruised; tubes dull straw-yellow, slowly bluing when injured, 0.5-1.5 cm long, adnate to subdecurrent in youth, depressed at maturity.

Stipe
Stipe 7-15 cm long, 3.5-7.0 cm thick, dry, solid, subclavate, surface of apex minutely tomentose, matted tomentose to sometimes longitudinally ridged below, not reticulate; typically reddish at the apex, cream-yellow at base, surface not bluing where handled; context cream-yellow, bluing erratically when cut; partial veil absent.

Spores
13.5 x 16.0 (19.0) x 4.5-5.5 µm, spindle-shaped to narrowly ellipsoid in face view, smooth, thin-walled, one to multi-guttulate; spore print olive-brown.

Habitat
Solitary to scattered in mixed hardwood/conifer woods; known primarily from Mendocino Co., but also occurring in the Pacific Northwest and Idaho; fruiting shortly after the fall rains.

Edibility
Experience is limited, but there are some reports that Boletus smithii is edible.

Comments
Boletus smithii is an attractive, robust bolete distinguished by a wine-red flushed cap, pores that bruise blue and a non-reticulate stipe that is typically red at the apex and yellowish at the base. Boletus rubripes is similar in stature, but has a buff-brown cap and a stipe that is colored just the reverse of Boletus smithii--red at the base and yellowish at the apex.