A yellow to orange-yellow slippery jack whose cap is covered at first with a fine grayish felt, and whose brownish pores and flesh turn blue when bruised or cut. The stem has brownish glandular dots and no ring. It is common under lodgepole pine in western mountains.
Edible for most people but can cause gastric upset in some, and some find it acidic even cooked. Because it stains blue, separate it carefully from other blue-staining boletes, some of which are poisonous; the felty yellow cap, glandular dots and hard-pine host are key.
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Habitat
Ectomycorrhizal with two-needle pines, especially lodgepole pine, less often jack pine; forms nitrogen-fixing tuberculate mycorrhizae with lodgepole. Scattered or in groups, summer in the Rockies, fall on the Pacific coast and in the Lake States, winter in coastal California.
Distribution
Western North America (common in the Rockies and Pacific Northwest), the northern Midwest, montane Mexico; also reported from Central America.
Characteristics
Cap: 6-10 cm, convex becoming flat; sticky or fairly dry with a fine grayish felty covering that wears off; yellow to orangish yellow, often cracking. Pores: brownish to orangish young, becoming brown to dark brown; bruising blue; 2-3 per mm; tubes up to 1 cm. Stem: 6-9 cm long, 1.5-2.5 cm thick; yellowish orange with fine brownish glandular dots; no ring; often staining blue then brown when handled. Flesh: whitish to yellow, orange at stem base, turning blue on exposure. Spores: 7-10 x 2.5-3.5 um, boletoid-fusiform, smooth.
