Boletus Rubroflammeus
Taxonomy
The species was first described by American mycologists Alexander H. Smith and Harry D. Thiers in their 1978 monograph on the boletes of Michigan. The type collection was made by Smith near Ann Arbor, and is stored at the University of Michigan Herbarium. The specific epithet rubroflammeus derives from the Latin words ruber ("red") and flammeus ("flaming").
Description
The shape of the cap of B. rubroflammeus is convex to broadly convex, and reaches a diameter of 6–12 cm (2.4–4.7 in). The margin of the cap extends slightly beyond the tubes. The cap surface is dry and initially appears appressed-fibrillose (with fibrils pressed down flat against the surface) or has a matted grayish tomentum, but later the hairs slough off and the matted tomentum is present only along the cap margin. In maturity, the center of the caps develop slight cracks. The cap is a deep vinaceous-red color that remains constant throughout the life of the fruit bodies. The flesh is thick, soft, and yellow. Its taste is mild, and it has no distinct odor. On the underside of the cap, the spore-bearing surface comprises vertically arranged minute tubes with pore-like openings. The tubes are yellow, 1–2 cm (0.4–0.8 in) deep, initially adnate (fused) to the stem, but later becoming free from attachment (or nearly so). Individual pores are round and small (about 2 per mm), while the overall pore surface is uneven or pitted. Its color is initially deep red, but fades slightly in maturity; the pore surface quickly turns blue with injury. The stem is 6–8 cm (2.4–3.1 in) long, 1–2 cm (0.4–0.8 in) thick, solid (i.e., not hollow), and equal in width throughout to club-shaped. Inside, it is yellowish with reddish streaks. Most of the stem surface is covered with coarse dark red reticulations, although near the top the color is yellow beneath the reticulations. All parts of the mushroom will quickly stain blue when cut, bruised, or otherwise injured. The mushroom is poisonous, and if consumed can cause gastrointestinal distress; typical symptoms include cramping, nausea, bloating, vomiting, and diarrhea.
Boletus rubroflammeus produces an olive-brown spore print. The spores are smooth, roughly oblong to slightly ventricose (swollen) in face view, in profile view inequilateral, and have dimensions of 10–14 by 4–5 μm. Spores have a broad and shallow suprahilar depression (a depressed area on the dorsal side of the spore that was once attached to the sterigma). They are yellowish hyaline (translucent) in Melzer's reagent, and pale yellow-orange when mounted in a solution of potassium hydroxide (KOH). The basidia (spore-bearing cells) are club-shaped with a long pedicel (stalk), four-spored, and measure 30–40 by 8–9 μm. Pleurocystidia (cystidia on the tube faces) are rare to scattered, 28–37 by 9–15 μm, fusoid (somewhat spindle-shaped) to ventricose, and have a somewhat sharp tip. Cheilocystidia (cystidia on gill edges) are abundant, 18–35 by 5–9 μm, and roughly similar in shape to the pleurocystidia. When mounted in KOH, the cheilocystidia have a dingy orange-yellow color, and walls that are smooth and thin. The tissue of the tubes is bilateral, meaning that they have a central strand of roughly parallel hyphae from which other hyphae diverge. The central strand comprises interwoven hyphae that are floccose and orange-yellow in KOH; the diverging hyphae continue into the hymenium to form a subhymenium that contain smooth hyphae measuring 4–6 μm wide. The cap has a cuticle consisting of tightly interwoven pressed-down hyphae that are usually 3–5 μm wide. The hyphae in the epicuticular zone (a waxy layer on the surface of the cuticle) often have fine granular incrustations that can be seen in both KOH and Melzer's reagent. Clamp connections are absent from the hyphae of B. rubroflammeus.