Some kind of bolete mushroom

Boletales

This bolete featured unusually large, bright yellow pores.

There are over 150 described bolete species in the Midwestern United States alone, so sometimes it's a challenge to narrow them down to an exact species ID. It's not an ash tree bolete. I found this one while doing field research in an old growth forest near the Meramec River near swamp white oak, pin oak, cottonwood, silver maple, green ash, persimmon, and hackberry trees. I'm not sure which tree it was associated with.

Aug. 18th, 2023

Arnold, Jefferson County, Missouri, USA

Olivia R. Myers

I thought this was a big rock, so I kicked it with my foot. Sadly don't have photos of an intact bolete to display here 🤷‍♂️

(This is a fungus BTW)

16/09/23 - Pisolithus albus

Boletales

Alcochete/Portugal (16/11/2023)

This time of year (late summer, although it doesn’t feel like it), one of the most commonly seen mushrooms in the Pacific Northwest is this species, Tapinella atrotomentosa. It’s often called the velvet rimroll, and, rather misleadingly, the velvet pax, (which would seem to imply that it’s a Paxillus species - it is not!). Tapinella is, oddly, in the order Boletales. Why is this odd? Because most Boletales have pores on the underside of the cap, not gills!

This species has a soft, velvet like cap, with a dark velvety stipe below, and as a saptrotroph grows exclusively on dead wood - conifer wood, to be specific. 

Some foragers are disappointed to learn that this mushroom is considered inedible - it’s very bitter and rather tough. It does have one very cool use, though: dye! Here are some sites that show what Tapinella atrotomentosa dyes can look like, with different mordants (generally dark purples): 

Boletes working together to push up a branch. 8/17 at Historic Yates Mill, North Carolina