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Danny’s DNA Discoveries – Boletopsis of the PNW
by Danny Miller

Introduction

abundant common uncommon rare - colour codes match my Pictorial Key and are my opinions and probably reflect my bias of living in W WA. Rare species may be locally common in certain places at certain times.

Boletopsis

Known as Kurotake in Japan, but not consumed nearly as often here, as its bitter and taste and tough consistency require long soaking in brine. These are white stemmed polypores of uniform consistency that turn black when handled or in age. Mycorrhizal.

 

Boletopsis grisea NY - starts out white to grey and darkens in age. A pine associate. Sometimes green tinged specimens are found. Those should be sequenced to see if they are different.

Boletopsis PNW01 - Collections that start out with a fairly dark cap when young, thought to be  Boletopsis leucomelaena EU, a spruce associate, instead turned out to be this unnamed species, a fir and hemlock associate. B. leucomelaena has not been shown to occur in the PNW, so any collections found under spruce should be collected to see what they are.

Boletopsis smithii WA - known only from the type collection, described in 1975 but with orange tones. The type sequence confirms it is a unique species.

Boletopsis watlingii UK (=B. perplexa UK) - has been sequenced from northern BC, but not yet from the PNW.

Boletopsis grisea © NAMA and the Field Museum of Natural History

Boletopsis PNW01 © Jonathan Frank (2 images) and Danny Miller

 

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