Leathery-veiled Bolete

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not listed

not listed

Leathery-veiled Bolete is a large, conspicuous, easily identified mushroom. It occurs in the United States in the Upper Midwest in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and northern Illinois. It also occurs in Canada in southern Manitoba. It is relatively common in Minnesota. There are just a handful of isolated records outside this range in Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Montana, and Saskatchewan. It was originally described in 1885 from a specimen in New York.

Leathery-veiled Bolete is found in summer and fall in deciduous forests and on lawns. It grows on the ground under hardwood trees, mostly white oak, but in Colorado it has been found under Gambel oak. It fruits mostly in areas where the forest has been cleared and only the shade trees remain. It has a mutually beneficial relationship (mycorrhizal) with the tiny rootlets of trees, absorbing sugars and amino acids while helping the tree absorb water.

When it first appears, the stalk and cap are completely enveloped in a thick, tough, leathery, firmly attached, protective covering (partial veil). This is the feature that gives the mushroom its common name. The veil soon ruptures, becomes gelatinous, and disintegrates, but it leaves a ring of tissue that sheathes the base of the stalk, and sometimes it leaves tissue remnants on the margin of the cap.

The cap is yellowish and convex when young. As it ages it broadens and darkens. Mature caps are brown, 1½″ to 8″ (4 to 20 cm) in diameter, and broadly convex or flat. The surface is smooth and is sticky in dry conditions but slimy when moist. It bruises dark brown.

The stalk is white to yellowish, 1½″ to 4″ (4 to 10 cm) long, and ⅜″ to 1¼″ (1 to 3 cm) thick, more or less the same thickness from top to bottom. It is smooth near the top. It bruises brown.

The pore surface is yellow when young, becoming brown as the spores mature. It is attached to the stem and sometimes runs down the stem. When bruised it quickly turns dark brown. There is about 1 pore per 1⁄32″ (1 mm). The pore tubes are angular and about ⅜″ (1 cm) deep.

The flesh is white to yellowish. It turns brown when sliced. Edibility is unknown.

The spore print is dark olive yellow to yellowish-brown.

Deciduous forests, lawns

Summer and fall

Sources

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

Relatively common in Minnesota

This species was originally described in 1885 as Boletus sphaerosporus. It was moved to its own genus Paragyrodon in 1942 based on morphological characteristics, and the move was later confirmed by phylogenetic studies. Paragyrodon sphaerosporus remains the only species in the genus.

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Location: St. Cloud, MN (Benton County)