fascinatedbyfungi's Identifications

Collected by Keara Gianotti. Perithecia erumpent through the bark of a live Castanea dentata. Asci unitunicate and 8-spored. Spores hyaline, smooth and up to 1-septate. Spore measurements: (6) 6.8 – 8.6 (9.3) × (2.8) 3 – 3.7 (3.9) µm; Q = (1.7) 2.1 – 2.6 (3); N = 30; Me = 7.7 × 3.3 µm; Qe = 2.3

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Originally posted to Mushroom Observer on May 3, 2022.

Friend sent me photos of a Boletes mushroom growing in leaf litter for I.D. Photo credit: A. Skinlo.

An iNaturalist Introduction to Mushrooming, 6-minute Utube video by Christian Schwartz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKF_pIY0Zpc

Oak-loving Bolete (Xerocomellus dryophilus)
"Synonym: Xerocomus dryophilus.
Cap is convex, 4-12 cm broad, expanding to plano-convex; surface dry, somewhat irregular with scattered bumps and depressions, matted tomentose, frequently partially areolate at maturity; color variable: reddish-brown, maroon, pinkish between cracks in the cuticle, in age often lighter from overlying greyish hairs; context moderately thick, pale yellow, bluing where cut or injured, especially at the junction of the stipe and cap; odor and taste mild.
Pores ochraceous, approximately 1-2 per mm, angular, bluing when bruised; tubes 0.5-1.0 cm long, colored like the pores, depressed at the stipe.
Stipe 4-8 cm long, 1-2.5 cm thick; shape variable: occasionally slender and sinuous, more typically short, straight, equal to ventricose, the base often pinched or flattened; surface nearly glabrous, yellowish at the apex, reddish-brown below from appressed fibrils; context yellow, soft, bluing slowly; veil absent.
Spores 11.5-16 x 5-6.5 µm, elliptical to subfusiform, moderately thick-walled, containing 1-3 vacuoles; spore print brownish.
Habitat: Solitary, scattered, or in small groups under Quercus agrifolia (coast liveoak); fruiting from fall to late-winter.
Comments: True to its species name, Xerocomellus dryophilus appears to occur only under oak, specifically coast liveoak (Quercus agrifolia). The tomentose cap which often becomes areolate in age, place it in a group with Xerocomus subtomentosus, and Xerocomellus chrysenteron. It can be told from these species, however, by its reddish-brown cap (when young), usually short stature, and a tendency to have a narrowed or pinched stipe base."
Mycoweb: https://www.mykoweb.com/CAF/species/Xerocomellus_dryophilus.html

Boletes are fleshy mushrooms with tubes rather than gills. The tube layer usually separates easily from the cap. The stipe is mostly central. Boletes are terrestrial, but are occasionally found on rotting wood. https://www.mykoweb.com/CAF/skey.html

California Mushrooms: The Comprehensive Identification Guide, D. Desjardin, M. Wood, and F. Stevens, 2nd printing 2019.
Key to Boletes pp. 342-345.

Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast: A Comprehensive Guide to the Fungi of Coastal Northern California, N. Siegel and C. Schwarz, 2016.
Boletes pp. 420-447.

Fungi of California: Home page https://www.mykoweb.com/index.html and https://www.mykoweb.com/CAF/ and https://mykoweb.com/CAF/skey.html and https://www.mykoweb.com/CAF/keys/index.html