Boletopsis perplexa

Photo: Liz Holden

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Description

General: Medium-sized dark brown to grey-brown cap, at first bun-shaped becoming more irregularly flattened with concolorous stem and whitish pores; on soil and needle litter, unique to Scottish pine woods.
Dimensions: Cap 4-10cm dia; stem 2.5-7.0 cm tall x 1.5-3.0 cm dia.
Cap: Dark fuliginous-brown to grey-brown with olivaceous tinges, blackening with age or on bruising; more or less rounded then flattened-convex, irregular, often incised, smooth. Flesh pallid, immediately violaceous-grey on cutting then blackish especially in the stem; clamp connections sparse.
Pores: Whitish to ivory-white becoming more lilaceous-grey and pinkish where bruised; coarse, angular. Tubes: concolorous, more or less decurrent.
Stem: Concolorous with cap but sometimes with bright orange tomentum at base; unequal or swollen in the middle, tapering downwards, solid.
 Spores: Pale yellowish-brown, irregularly polygonal and tuberculate; 4.5-5.0 x 3.5-4.5 µm.
Odour: Not distinctive.
Taste: Slightly soapy or bitter.
Chemical Tests: Flesh sepia-black with KOH.
Occurrence: Summer to Autumn, very rare.

Statistics:

UK (excluding NI & CI) fungus records

Total records: 14
Earliest recording: 1876
Latest recording: 2004
Vice Counties and (frequency): 92(5); 95(1); 96(8)
Pre-1960: 5 records
NBN Gateway grid map Post-1960: 9 records

 

Qualifying criterion: 4.4: very rare (less than 5 sites) with evidence of ongoing threat
Justification: very rare species associated uniquely with Scottish pine; current BAP action for the species needs to continue
Threats: felling host trees; trampling; compaction; forestry operations; mountain biking; eutrophication
Action Required: Site protection and monitoring against habitat loss and degradation; taxonomic research