Rubroboletus eastwoodiae
Fungal Diversity 83:
200. 2017.
Common Name: satan's bolete
Synonyms: Boletus eastwoodiae (Murrill) Sacc. & Trotter; Suillellus eastwoodiae Murrill; Rubroboletus eastwoodiae (Murrill) Arora, C.F. Schwarz & J.L. Frank (nom. inval.)
Misapplied name: Boletus satanas Lenz
Cap 10-22 cm in diameter, convex, becoming broadly convex; pale grey to pale olive-buff, pinkish tones sometimes developing in age particularly along the margin, occasionally aereolate near the disc; flesh olive-buff, thick, bruising blue; odor and taste undistinguished.
Pores fine, dark red, fading in age to reddish-orange, bruising blue.
Stipe 7-14 cm tall, base abruptly bulbous, up to 13+cm broad, narrowing to 4-7 cm at the apex; pink to vinaceous reticulations above, pale pinkish tones below, fading in age; flesh same as cap, bruising blue.
Spores 11-15 x 3.5-6 µm, elliptical, smooth. Spore print olive-brown.
Solitary to scattered under oaks, especially Quercus agrifolia (coast liveoak); from late fall to early winter; common in some years, rare in others.
Described as toxic in the literature, though some people in California claim that it can safely be eaten if thoroughly cooked, possibly by repeated par-boilings.
Rubroboletus eastwoodiae is easily recognized by its massive, abruptly bulbous stipe with vinaceous reticulation at the apex. Other important field characters are the pale-colored cap usually with a pinkish margin in age, red pores, and blueing of virtually all parts of the fruiting body when bruised or cut. Rubroboletus pulcherrimus is another robust boletoid species with dark red pores. However, it has a darker cap and lacks an abruptly bulbous stipe base.
The name of a similar European taxa, Boletus satanas, has long been missapplied to our California material. The true Boletus satanas of Europe is distinct from our species and the correct name for our taxa was Boletus eastwoodiae (Murr.) Sacc. & Trott., until it's transfer to the genus Rubroboletus. It was originally described by William Alphonso Murrill in 1910 from a collection made by Alice Eastwood near San Francisco.
The name Boletus eastwoodiae has a rather long and tortured history:
Suillellus eastwoodiae (named for the botanist Alice Eastwood) is a Murrill name from 1910. It was transferred to Boletus in 1912 by Saccardo and Trotter. The name Boletus eastwoodiae is the name we (incorrectly) used for years for what we now call Boletus pulcherrimus. When the type specimen of Boletus eastwoodiae was studied, it was found to be the same as what we have been calling Boletus satanas in California. To correct this, Thiers and Halling erected the name Boletus pulcherrimus in 1976.
Recently it's been discovered (well maybe not that recently, if you are familiar with both the European and California material) that what we call Boletus satanas is different from the "real" Boletus satanas of Europe. If you do a comparison of European Boletus satanas with our local taxa you will find that the European material has a different coloration of the cap and lacks the abruptly bulbous base. Molecules confirm the difference. This means that we need another name for "our" Boletus satanas and leaves us with Boletus eastwoodiae (remember the type is actually "our" B. satanas).
This species belongs in the genus Rubroboletus, but the transfer made by Arora, Schwarz, & Frank in 2015 is invalid because of an incorrect basionym. The proper transfer was made in Tibpromma et al. in 2017.
Ammirati, J.F., Traquair, J.A. & Horgen, P.A. (1985). Poisonous Mushrooms of the Northern United States and Canada. University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis, MN. 396 p.
Arora, D. (1986). Mushrooms Demystified. Ten Speed Press: Berkeley, CA. 959 p.
Bessette, A.E., Roody, W.C. & Bessette, A.R. (2000). North American Boletes: A Color Guide to the Fleshy Pored Mushrooms. Syracuse University Press: Syracuse, NY. 400 p.
Breitenbach, J. & Kränzlin, F. (1991). Fungi of Switzerland. Volume 3: Boletes and Agarics (1st Part). Strobilomycetaceae, Boletaceae, Paxillaceae, Gomphidiaceae, Hygrophoraceae, Tricholomataceae, Polyporaceae (lamellate). Verlag Mykologia: Luzern, Switzerland. 361 p.
Desjardin, D.E., Wood, M.G. & Stevens, F.A. (2015). California Mushrooms: The Comprehensive Identification Guide. Timber Press: Portland, OR. 560 p.
Frank, J.L. (2015). Nomenclatural novelties. Index Fungorum no. 248: 1. (PDF)
Murrill, W.A. 1910. North American Flora 9(3): 133-200. (Protologue)
Siegel, N. & Schwarz, C. (2016). Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast. Ten Speed Press: Berkeley, CA. 601 p.
Thiers, H.D. (1965). California Boletes. I. Mycologia 57(4): 524-534.
Thiers, H.D. (1975). California Mushrooms—A Field Guide to the Boletes. Hafner Press: New York, NY. 261 p. (WWW)
Tibpromma, S., Hyde, K.D. & others. (2017). Fungal diversity notes 491–602: taxonomic and phylogenetic contributions to fungal taxa. Fungal Diversity 83(1): 1-261.
— closeup of pores
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