Finally - mushrooms appearing

[diana]

It's been awhile – we haven't had rain until the past week or so here. I am at wits end. Seems that these would be easy boletes to identify. Found 3 in my yard this morning. Red caps, bright yellow pores that stain blue. Appealing yellow flesh in cap does not stain. Found in FL around oaks and hickory. Distinguishing feature is a flat stipe mainly yellow with pinkish base. No reticulation, kind of slick with a bit of vertical (?) lines to it. Cut stem is stringy and stains lightly. Tubes about ¼ inch in length and appear to be attached but not decurrant.  

Now about 30+ minutes the cap flesh is bluing slightly.

[Dave W]

Red/yellow blue-staining boletes are a difficult group to ID. Some names to consider here... genus Hortiboletus, Boletus patrioticus, Boletus miniato-pallescens. 

[diana]

I know!  I don't know why I don't give up on the boletes.  Guess I'm not a quitter....  Thanks so much but I'm going to eliminate the three you suggested.  Patrioticus on the basis of no red zone in flesh and more of a pure pastel yellow for the flesh (the perfect color of yellow for a baby gift from back in the day when the sex was not known prior to birth).  Miniato-pallesces, ah, I change my mind, I think this is it.  And the hortiboletus, tubes too long, flesh wrong color stem too red.

But.. shouldn't flatness of the stem be a tell or is this not a factor.  By flatness I mean almost ribbon-like.

[Dave W]

Okay, probably not partioticus.

By Hortiboletus I mean one of H. campestris, H. harrisonii, or H. rubellus. (Not sure about the status of (Horti)Boletus fraternus.) These types have stalks featuring varying amounts of red/yellow on the stalk. I see in the photos the flesh inside the stalk base is reddish. This is something expected with H. campstris or H. rubellus. (Some sources place rubellus into genus Xeromellus.) I din't think the length of the tubes disqualifies Hortiboletus (or Xerocomellus). 

[diana]

, the more I read the more confused I become.  It seems that season is here and they are HUGE.  I've been jealous of the big mushrooms you guys find up north compared to the usual here.  On the way home the other day I came across boletes 8 to 10 inches across.  They were buggy so I left them outside while I put my groceries away.  By the time I remembered them we had one of our afternoon deluges of the sky falling and what a mess it did to those mushrooms.  Not going to try and id those.  Then yesterday I saw an odd mushroom growing across the street, large and wavy.  Wasn't there the day before because it's one of my usual checks.  Turns out it was Phylloporus rhodoxanthus .  Ha!  something I can id!  Anyway, the abundance right now is a curse, too much to try and id.  I just want to lock myself in my bedroom and cry.

[Dave W]

Just try to learn a few types at a time. Make collections when nice fresh material is available so that key features are readily observable.

Boletes include lots of difficult to ID species, and it is currently believed that some of the names used for many years will need to be changed because more than one species is being called by the same name!