Bay bolete Imleria badia

Right now

When to look

From August to November. Favourable temperatures: 8 to 18 °C. It usually fruits 6 to 13 days after at least 15 mm of rain.

Where to look

Habitat

Mainly conifers, sometimes broadleaves

Soil

Acid-loving (conifers) (pH 4.0 to 5.8)

How to recognise it

Cap 3 to 15 cm, uniform bay brown to chestnut brown, felty and matt in dry weather, distinctly sticky and shiny in damp weather. Tubes and pores cream then bright yellow, bluing strongly and quickly to blue-green when pressed with a finger. Stem cylindrical and slender, brownish on a yellow background, fibrillose, entirely smooth: no net, no ring, no red dots. Flesh whitish, yellowish near the tubes, bluing faintly, smell faint and pleasant. Mainly under conifers, on acidic soil.

Dangerous look-alikes

• Bitter bolete

  Tylopilus felleus
  inedible

  Pores white then dirty pink that do not turn blue, and a dark brown net standing out distinctly on the stem; very bitter taste of a fragment placed on the tongue then spat out.

• Devil's bolete

  Rubroboletus satanas
  poisonous

  Cap whitish to putty grey and not bay brown, pores orange-red, swollen stem with a red net; on chalky soil under broadleaves, whereas the bay bolete is acid-loving.

Foraging tips

The rapid bluing of the pores is normal in this species and is not a sign of toxicity; on the other hand, any bolete with red pores or a bitter taste is to be discarded. Wipe the sticky cap skin before cooking and eat cooked.

Model reliability

Reliability for this species: moderate.

Also in season

• Chanterelle
• Cep (penny bun)
• Parasol mushroom
• Field mushroom
• Horn of plenty
• Winter chanterelle

Where mushrooms are fruiting this week · All species