Lanmaoa fragrans

Morphological Features:

Pileus fleshy in appearance, reaching up to about 15 cm in diameter, hemispherical in the early stage, soon becoming convex and finally plano-convex. The surface is basically brown, sometimes dark chestnut in some specimens and with reddish tints in others. The cuticle is velvety in young specimens, becoming smooth and glabrous over time, with a dry and matte appearance even when wet. The margin is usually excurrent and involute, especially in younger individuals, becoming more undulate at maturity.

Tubes adnate to subfree, yellow, turning somewhat more olivaceous at maturity; they blue upon pressure and are quite short.

Pores round, small, and fairly uniform, yellow when young; they open slightly with age and become olivaceous or brownish-olivaceous in very old specimens. Like the tubes, they blue upon pressure.

Stipe well-proportioned or rather short, cylindrical to fusiform, thickened in the central region and rooting towards the base. It has a yellowish background color that is more pronounced in the upper portion, while the remainder is usually speckled with reddish-brown or distinctly brown.

Flesh thick and firm, whitish in the pileus, distinctly yellowish in the stipe; it blues upon cutting with variable intensity. It has a pleasant aromatic odor and an acidulous taste.

Habitat:

A rare species, particularly in the northern regions of the Iberian Peninsula, though quite frequent in the south. We present it thanks to the courtesy of our friend and collaborator Juande; it was located in the Alcornocales Natural Park (P.N.), and also occurs in oak forests with a Cistus understory and under chestnut trees. It is primarily autumnal, although its appearance in other seasons cannot be ruled out.

Observations:

This is an edible Boletus whose taste differs from traditional Boletus species by being more acidulous. It constitutes the type species of section Fragantes within its genus; Boletus spretus = Boletus aemilli, a similar species with a distinctly red or pinkish cuticle, also belongs to this same section. Due to its bluing reaction, it could be confused with species from other sections, such as Imleria badia.