Suillus grevillei

Description

Suillus grevillei, also known as Greville's bolete or larch bolete, is a mushroom commonly found in Europe, Asia, and North America. It features a bright yellow cap that darkens with age, always appearing wet due to its mucous slime layer. The mushroom's pores underneath the cap are initially bright yellow, but they darken as they mature and can bruise to a rust color. The stem is yellow with brown scales and has a veil-like skirt, forming a ring zone.

This species prefers to grow under and around larch trees, and its flesh holds a lot of water. To bring out its flavor and texture, it's recommended to dry the mushroom before consumption. While Suillus grevillei is common, it's essential to remove the cap's skin and pores to avoid potential gastric upsets due to the slime they contain. This type of mushroom is not typically used fresh but can be improved by slicing, drying, and re-hydrating.

In Eastern Europe, it's a common practice to peel off the slimy cap layer and remove the pores, using only the cap's flesh, which is well-cooked for consumption.

Common names: Greville's Bolete, Larch Bolete, Larch Suillus, Tamarack Jack, Lärksopp (Sweden), Zeltainā Sviestbeka (Latvia).

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   Bright yellow 5–10 cm (2–4 in), darkening to burnt orange on older specimens. Starting convex but flattening in older mushrooms. The cap is viscid and looks shiny even when the weather is dry and is covered in slime. The variant badius has a chestnut brown cap.

2. Pores

   Sponge-like, angular, bright yellow pores that darken with maturity and will bruise a rust color.

3. Stem

   Yellow with brown scales underneath the veil-like skirt and smooth above. Before the mushroom fully opens the pores are covered by a fine web like veil which joins the edge of the cap to the stem, when this comes away it forms the skirt.

4. Skirt

   Has a ring zone left from the veil over the pores not a true skirt.

5. Flesh

   Yellow-orange and holding a lot of water.

6. Habitat

   Under and around Larch trees.

7. Spore Print

   Oche-sienna colored.

8. Taste and Smell

   This mushroom holds so much water that it needs drying to get a flavor and texture from but as it holds so much water it drys to next to nothing, otherwise it can be added to soups and stews to bulk them out.

Look-Alikes

1. Suillus granulatus

   It is quite similar but has no stem ring.

History

In 1832, a German botanist-mycologist named Johann Friedrich Klotzsch gave a scientific name to a type of mushroom, which he called Boletus grevillei. Later, in 1945, another scientist named Rolf Singer changed the name to Suillus grevillei.

The name "Suillus" comes from the Latin word for pigs (swine) because these mushrooms have greasy caps. The specific name "grevillei" is a tribute to the Scottish botanist and mycologist Robert Kaye Greville, who was also a talented artist and had a keen interest in nature.

Synonyms and Varieties

• Boletus flavus Withering (1792), A botanical arrangement of British plants, Edn 2, 3, p. 415

• Boletus elegans Schumacher (1803), Enumeratio plantarum in partibus Saellandiae septentrionalis et orientalis, 2, p. 374

• Boletus decurrens Schumacher (1803), Enumeratio plantarum in partibus Saellandiae septentrionalis et orientalis, 2, p. 374

• Boletus luteus Greville (1826) [1825], Scottish cryptogamic flora, 4, tab. 183 (nom. illegit.)

• Boletus grevilleiKlotzsch (1832), Linnaea, Ein journal für die botanik, 7, p. 198 (Basionyme) Sanctionnement : Fries (1832)(index)

• Boletus elegans subsp.* flavus (Withering) Fries (1838) [1836-38], Epicrisis systematis mycologici, p. 410

• Boletus theclae Schulzer (1870), Verhandlungen der kaiserich-königlichen zoologisch-botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien, 20, p. 178

• Cricunopus elegansP. Karsten (1881), Revue mycologique (Toulouse), 3(9), p. 16

• Viscipellis flava (Withering) Quélet (1886), Enchiridion fungorum in Europa media et praesertim in Gallia vigentium, p. 155

• Viscipellis flava var. elegans(P. Karsten) Quélet (1886), Enchiridion fungorum in Europa media et praesertim in Gallia vigentium, p. 155

• Ixocomus flavus (Withering) Quélet (1888), Flore mycologique de la France et des pays limitrophes, p. 415

• Ixocomus elegans(P. Karsten) Quélet (1888), Flore mycologique de la France et des pays limitrophes, p. 415

• Boletus flavus var. elegans (Withering) Costantin & L.M. Dufour (1891), Nouvelle flore des champignons, Edn 1, p. 150

• Boletopsis elegans (P. Karsten) Hennings (1898), in Engler & Prantl, Die natürlichen pflanzenfamilien, 1(1**), p. 195

• Solenia elegans (P. Karsten) Kuntze (1898), Revisio generum plantarum, 3, p. 522

• Solenia flava(Withering) Kuntze (1898), Revisio generum plantarum, 3, p. 522

• Boletopsis flava(Withering) Hennings (1898), in Engler & Prantl, Die natürlichen pflanzenfamilien, 1(1**), p. 195

• Boletus elegans var. flavus (Withering) Rea (1922), British Basidiomycetae, a handbook to the larger british fungi, p. 559

• Suillus elegans(P. Karsten) Snell (1944), Lloydia, 7(1), p. 27

• Suillus flavus(Withering) Singer (1945), Farlowia, 2, p. 259

• Ixocomus grevillei (Klotzsch) Vassilkov (1955), Outline of a Geographical investigation of the Cap-Fungi in the URSS, p. 20

• Boletinus grevillei(Klotzsch) Pomerleau (1980), Naturaliste canadien, 107, p. 303

• Suillus grevillei f. flavus(Withering) Estadès & Lannoy (2004), Bulletin mycologique et botanique Dauphiné-Savoie, 44(174), p. 13

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