Red-cracking Bolete

(Xerocomellus chrysenteron)

Conservation Status
Red-cracking Bolete
Photo by Amber Rathman
  IUCN Red List

not listed

 
  NatureServe

NNR - Unranked

 
  Minnesota

not listed

 
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
 
Description
 
 

Red-cracking Bolete is an easily recognized, small to medium-sized, edible mushroom. It occurs in Europe, North America, and Japan, and has been introduced into New Zealand. In the United States it is most common east of the Great Plains and west of the Rocky Mountains. It is relatively uncommon in Minnesota, where it reaches the western extent of its eastern range. It is found in summer and fall, alone, scattered, or in small groups, in deciduous and mixed forests. It grows on the ground usually under hardwood trees, sometimes under coniferous trees. It has a mutually beneficial relationship (mycorrhizal) with the tiny rootlets of trees, absorbing sugars and amino acids while helping the tree absorb water.

The cap is 1¼ to 4 (3 to 10 cm) in diameter. It is convex at first and covered with minute velvety hairs. The upper surface is dry and may be dark olive-brown to dark grayish-olive, grayish-brown, or brown. As it ages it becomes broadly convex to almost flat and conspicuously cracked, especially toward the margins, exposing reddish to pink flesh underneath. This is the feature that gives the mushroom its common name. Old specimens are often reddish toward the margins.

The stalk is firm, solid, 1½ to 5 (4 to 13 cm) long, longer than the cap is wide, and 316 to (0.5 to 1.5 cm) thick. The color is variable, but it is often yellowish toward the top, reddish in the middle, and purplish at the base. It sometimes has broad longitudinal ridges.

The pore surface is yellow when young, becoming brownish or olive with age. It stains blue when bruised. The spore print is brown to dark olive-brown.

The flesh is fairly thick and whitish to yellow. It slowly turns blue when exposed to air. It is edible but when cooked the texture is unappealing and the taste is bland.

 
     
 

Similar Species

 
     
     
 
Habitat and Hosts
 
 

Deciduous and mixed forests. Hardwood trees.

 
     
 
Ecology
 
 

Season

 
 

Summer and fall

 
     
 
Distribution
 
 

Distribution Map

 

Sources

4, 24, 26, 29, 30, 77.

 
  7/26/2022      
         
 

Occurrence

 
 

Relatively uncommon in Minnesota

 
         
 
Taxonomy
 
  Kingdom Fungi (fungi)  
  Subkingdom Dikarya  
  Phylum Basidiomycota (club fungi)  
  Subphylum Agaricomycotina (jelly fungi, yeasts, and mushrooms)  
  Class Agaricomycetes (mushrooms, bracket fungi, puffballs, and allies)  
  Subclass Agaricomycetidae  
  Order Boletales (boletes and allies)  
  Suborder Boletineae  
 

Family

Boletaceae (boletes)  
 

Genus

Xerocomellus  
       
 

Synonyms

 
 

Boletus chrysenteron

Boletus pascuus

Xerocomus chrysenteron

 
       
 

Common Names

 
 

Cracked-cap Bolete

Red-cracking Bolete

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glossary

Mycorrhizal

A symbiotic, usually beneficial relationship between a fungus and the tiny rootlets of a plant, usually a tree.

 

 

 

 

 
 
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Amber Rathman

 
    Red-cracking Bolete   Red-cracking Bolete  
           
 
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Other Videos
 
  Xerocomellus Chrysenteron - Red Cracking Bolete - How to identify and to prepare them for cooking.
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About

Sep 11, 2020

 
  Xerocomellus chrysenteron, Boletus chrysenteron, Xerocomus chrysenteron, is a small, edible mushroom
Adrian through nature
 
   
 
About

Jun 5, 2019

Xerocomellus chrysenteron, Boletus chrysenteron, Xerocomus chrysenteron, is a small, edible mushroom

I go through the forests, mountains, hills, fields, and waters to understand the living world and to create a living mind.

I'm just a man who is on passing on this living earth.

A living earth that is closer to death, because of us, of the human being. I spend all my time in nature, enjoying its show. All this time I try to make a video encyclopedia with flora and fauna that I encounter on this living earth. Sometimes with human fauna ...

I meet wild mushrooms, medicinal mushrooms, edible mushrooms, dead mushrooms, toxic mushrooms, magic mushrooms. Every wild mushroom with its mystery and story. The living earth is still amazing. I meet plants, flowers, trees, shrubs, grass, leaves fallen on the living land, leaves fallen on the dead land, leaves that dance in our thoughts and soul. I meet insects, invertebrates of all kinds, butterflies, worms, larvae, birds, fish, mammals, reptiles, amphibians...

But I also encounter deforested forests, hunters, poachers, animals killed, tormented, in a suffering that words can not express. I also meet people who think it is good that they behave like this.

I stretch my hand and save an insect from the drowning. But this people trample under foot my hand. They make their choice. I make my choice.

Sometimes I manage to correctly identify the species of living beings: mushrooms, plants, animals, insects. Sometimes not. What I know is much less than what I do not know. I am just a man in front of a knowledge that surpasses me, overcomes us.

I do not know enough English yet to make my clips more attractive. But I'm learning...A wonderful life, I wish you all!

 
  Xerocomellus chrysenteron - Boletus chrysenteron - Red Cracking Bolete - Bolet à chair jaune 4k
The wonderful world of mycology
 
   
 
About

Nov 25, 2021

On September 30 we made an outing where we found this bolete in a beautiful oak forest. It is easy to identify this species by the reddish color in the bites. It is edible like all Xerocomus, but of low quality.

At the end of the video I share a photo of Verónica Díaz of another very similar xerocomus, the X. porosporus that we also saw in the same forest.

I hope you like it

 

 

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  Amber Rathman
7/14/2022

Location: Faribault, MN

Red-cracking Bolete

 
           
 
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Created: 7/26/2022

Last Updated:

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