Sunday 27 March 2011

#51 Phylloporus rhodoxanthus

This is an intriguing fungus - although it appears to have gills, it belongs to the Boletaceae family.  Phylloporus means 'gill-like pores'.  The pores are arranged in rows radiating outwards resembling gills.  I haven't actually dissected the fertile surface to closely investigate this.

Phylloporus rhodoxanthus has a common name of Gilled Bolete, which is most appropriate.

Caps start out convex (domed) with an inrolled margin, expanding and flattening up to 120mm across.  Commonly, the caps are 'biscuit' brown,smooth and dry, but often wavy or contorted. The cap will sometimes age to funnel-shaped. With age, the surface of some caps will crack into a tessellated pattern, making identification somewhat confusing, but blue bruising of the damaged flesh is a sure identification feature.

Fresh gills are pale to bright yellow, and supple, but dry out with age to a brownish yellow. Gills can extend down the stem. Spore print is brown.

The stem is about 15mm thick, yellowish white to dirty white, from about  3 to 9 cm tall, sometimes tapering to a narrower base. Yellow mycelia is sometimes visible at the base of the stem.

Phylloporus rhodoxanthus is mycorrhizal with hardwoods, especially oaks in North America.  In Australia it is often found associated with Casuarinas and Eucalypts, and is usually found in scattered groups.  I believe it to be found primarily in dry woodland.

My hand gives a size perspective - a particularly large specimen

Tessellated cap surface

White flesh bruising green-blue, supple yellow fresh gills

Inrolled margin of young fruit body

Stems tapering to a narrower base, gills aging to dirty yellow

Gills running down stem (decurrent), dry and yellowish brown. Funnel shaped.

My sightings of Phylloporus rhodoxanthus
[This will be updated with new sightings]

Gibson Way, northwestern NSW - Dry woodland under Eucalypts and Casuarinas, Sept 2010

Bingara, NW NSW - woodland after rain, Dec 2008

Medicinal properties/uses:  Work is apparently being carried out on mycelial culture of Phylloporus rhodoxanthus investigating anti-tumor effects.

Edibility:  Phylloporus rhodoxanthus is reportedly edible, but I have no confirmation or further information on this claim.

8 comments:

Keith said...

Excellent post, great images, thank you. Keep them coming please.
Regards, Keith.
http://woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.com/

Gaye said...

Hello Keith,

thank you. Time has been against me - well, it's entirely my own fault, I take on too much and some things have to suffer.

I'm living in two worlds now - Singleton, where we live; and Baradine, where we plan to retire. I'm looking forward to the coming fungus season, and want to try to get out as much as possible fungi hunting, especially in the Hunter Valley while I still live in the area.

I wish I had the gumption to prepare some of these supposedly edible fungi for the table, but so far I have resisted. I'm planning to try to be brave enough this season to have a go at some - I hope I survive :)

Regards,
Gaye

Flabmeister said...

Gaye

Avery informative post which will hopefully let me ID these if they are in places to which I go. One question I have is about the staining. How long does this take to appear? I'm not looking for a precise answer, but something in terms of a few minutes (eg in the field) or overnight (bring it back home as for a spore print).

Best regards

Martin

Denis Wilson said...

Hi Gaye
I leave them well alone, I am afraid.
That sentence could be reversed and still give the same result.
Not for me.
Interesting post.
Thanks
Denis

Bill Leithhead said...

Gaye, the colour shades in the cap might be related to the Greek roots in the name:-

rhodon = pink shades

xanthos = yellow

Perhaps?

Bill Leithhead

Gaye said...

Thank you Martin, Denis and Bill.

Martin, the staining occurs within a few minutes in the field, but is not heavy staining like other blue-staining boletes.

Cheers,
Gaye

Unknown said...

JUst saw an austrailian phyloporus that stains blue, and has brown/yellow cap and think gills and cap called
Phylloporus clelandii

ITs on the Bill Leithhead site, i think this may be it.

Tamara and Ducky have the same squinty right eye :) said...

Hiya!!

Found this lovely one in East Melbourne, Victoria, with a birch tree. Gorgeous!