Red-capped bolete with an ornamented stipe
cf. Suillus Genus
Angles captured. Nine field frames including sections cut on the spot, four bench frames, and the spore print on white and black card.
Morphology
Cap 3–5 cm, dark red speckled over a paler ground, dry. Pore surface yellow. Stipe densely ornamented with dark red fibrils and dots over a yellow ground, apex reddish. Field sections show pale yellow flesh and hollow chambers in the stipe of the older fruitbody. Spore print ochre-buff to pale cinnamon with a stippled pore texture.
Habitat & substrate
Deep pine litter at the trail edge — white pine directly overhead.
Lookalikes & what rules them out
A red-fibrilled cap over yellow pores, a red-dotted yellow stipe and a pine overhead is the profile of the painted suillus, Suillus spraguei, one of the region's handsomest pine associates. The print's pale ochre cast sits at the light end of the genus range, and the hollowing stipe is a known trait of older fruitbodies in the group.
To confirm this identification
One character would close it: the greyish ring zone on the upper stipe that painted suillus keeps from its veil. Check the next fresh one, and note whether the pores are large, angular and radially arranged.
Notes
Sectioned in the field as well as at the bench — the chambered stipe would have been missed otherwise.
Found at Walker Pond Rd area, Sturbridge, MA on Thursday, 20 August 2026 at 12:19. See the full walk for that day's weather and everything else recorded.
Others in this group
Large orange-brown bolete, uprootedBoletaceae · Jul 31Low–moderate
Bolete with boletinoid poresBoletinellus, Suillus or Phylloporus · Jul 31Moderate
Olive-brown boleteBoletaceae · Aug 6Low–moderate
Rosy cap with golden gill-platescf. Phylloporus · Aug 6Moderate
Dark chestnut boleteBoletaceae · Aug 6Moderate
Wine-red boleteBoletaceae · Aug 6Moderate
Orange-capped boletesBoletaceae · Aug 6Low–moderate
Red-capped bolete with yellow poresBoletaceae · Aug 8Moderate