COMMON NAME: Red-cracked Bolete.

CAP: (3-8 cm) wide, convex, becoming broadly convex to nearly flat; surface dry, smooth, velvety when young, becoming cracked in age, dark olive to olive-brown with reddish tinges in the cracks and often with a red marginal zone in age; flesh white when young, turning yellow in age, slowly blueing when bruised or cut, staining lemon-yellow in FeSO₄, buff in KOH; odor and taste not distinctive.

PORE SURFACE: yellow to bright yellow when young, often olive-yellow or brownish in age, slowly blueing when cut or bruised; pores irregular, 1 mm wide.

STALK: (4-6 cm) long, (6-10 mm) thick, equal or tapered downward, solid, yellow at the apex, purplish red at the base, staining blue-green when bruised, finely granular to scurfy overall, sometimes with ridges but not reticulate, mycelium at base white; partial veil and ring absent.

SPORE PRINT: olive-brown.

MICROSCOPIC FEATURES: spores 9-13 x 3.5-4.5 μm, oblong to boat-shaped, smooth, pale brown.

FRUITING: scattered to gregarious on the ground in hardwoods and mixed forests, along roadcuts, and on mossy banks; June-September; fairly common.

EDIBILITY: edible.

From Mushrooms of Northeastern North America Alan E. Bessette, Arleen R. Bessette, & David W. Fischer  Copright © 1997 Syracuse University, ISBN 0-8156-0388-6