Oldrose Bolete

Oldrose Bolete Boletus rhodopurpureus Smotl. (illustrated 25% life size) Cap 7–20cm across; whitish or buff to pinky ochre, easily bruising and marking dark blue; slightly velvety, sometimes cracking at centre. Stem 60–90×18–55mm; lemon-yellow, flushed reddish towards base with a red net, bruising dark violet to blackish. Flesh lemon, flushed greenish-yellow, rapidly deep blue on cutting then black, stem base blood-red then beetroot; taste indistinct, smell fruity. Tubes lemon-yellow then greenish-yellow, bruising blue. Pores small; orange then flushed red, becoming olivaceous-buff with age. Spores 10.5–13.5×4–5.5¼, subfusiform. Spore print olivaceous-brown. Habitat in birch scrub and mixed and broad-leaved woodland; summer to autumn. Uncommon. Poisonous. Note in my first book I used the name B. purpureus, but this name has now been abandoned because it has been used for many different taxa.