The boletes of Michigan, by Alexander H. Smith and Harry D. Thiers.

EDIBILITY

413

Section Boletus, Subsection Luridi
For safety's sake the members of this subsection should not be
used for food in our region. Some are known to be poisonous, and a
number of Michigan species have not been tested. The species are to a
large extent identified by microscopic characters (see p.361).
Section Boletus
(excluding subsect. Luridi)
1. Tubes white at first and the pores usually overgrown with a white mantle
of hyphae (i.e., they are "stuffed" when young), becoming greenish yellow
to olive-yellow or olive brownish; stipe very finely reticulate; spore deposit
olive to olive-brown......................... (*) Subsect. Boleti
1. Tubes yellow from early stages on.......................... 2
2. Taste of context typically bitter; stipe finely reticulate over the upper
part (but see B. ornatipes also)......................... 3
2. Stipe conspicuously reticulate and yellow; tubes bright yellow from
youth to old age.............................. (*) B. ornatipes
3. Cap whitish to pale olive-buff; stipe bright red and usually rather long
and slender............................... (-) B. inedulis
3. Not as above, taste mild to bitter................................ 4
4. Cap red at first, soon fading to buffy brown...... (-) B. pseudopeckii
4. Cap persistently bright rose-red...................B. B.speciosus
This species is reported as good by some authors, but we refuse
to recommend it since the red-capped boleti are very difficult to
identify and some are poisonous.
Section Subtomentosi
This section encompasses a large and confusing group of species
some of which are edible and choice and some very probably poisonous.
Anyone interested in the group should use the key running through the
text and emphasizing microscopic features. Some progress may be made
by consulting the photographs and reading the appropriate descriptions:
for instance B. mirabilis, which unfortunately is rare in Michigan, and B.
projectellus are good edible species. Those particularly to be avoided are
in the Fratemi and feature in addition to cap color a color change to
blue on the tubes if the latter are injured, and yellow tubes throughout
the life of the hymenophore. When the taxonomy of this section becomes stabilized and we have a more complete inventory of the recognizable variants occurring in the state, we shall very likely be able to
recommend another dozen species to the collector.