Recognize Bitter Bolete by its pinkish pore surface, a thick stalk marked with dark brown netting, and a dry tan to brown cap often 2 to 6 inches (5 to 15 cm) across.
The stalk is usually club-shaped to nearly equal in width, with the reticulation strongest near the top.
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Check the cap, pores, and stem pattern before considering finer details.
The pinkish pores and dark netted stem are especially useful field marks.
Bitter Bolete shows useful visual changes from a compact button to an expanded mushroom.
Bitter Bolete is most identifiable from summer into fall, when the fruiting body appears above ground. At that time, look for a brown cap, pale pores that soon turn pinkish, and a stout stalk with a dark netlike pattern. Outside the fruiting season, this mushroom is usually not visible, so there are few useful off-season identification clues.
A few boletes are regularly mistaken for Bitter Bolete.
porcini(Boletus edulis)
Both are brown-capped, stout boletes with a pale pore surface. Porcini usually has a white to tan net pattern near the stem top and pores that stay white, then yellowish. Tylopilus felleus shows a darker net over much of the stem and pores that often turn pinkish with age.
bay bolete(Imleria badia)
It can overlap in cap color and pore shape. Bay bolete lacks the strong dark netting on the stem and its pores bruise blue, while Tylopilus felleus does not show that blue bruising.
Tylopilus felleus is widely recorded across temperate parts of North America and Europe. Geography helps only a little, since it occurs in more than one region, but habitat is useful when narrowing an identification. It is a woodland mushroom, most often found on the ground in coniferous or mixed forests, commonly with spruce, pine, or fir. Finding it in forest duff rather than grassland or wetlands supports the ID, especially in cool temperate woods.
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The dark netlike pattern on the upper stem, called reticulation, is one of the best clues. The pore surface is pale to pinkish rather than yellow, which also helps with Bitter Bolete identification.
Identify it from a photo with Botan, then see species-specific plant details, care information, and common problems.
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