A large Australian Purple and Yellow Bolete

8-10 inch Australian bolete

Stem becomes pink and pores become yellow

 The  mature cap  of this  very large unidentified Australian Bolete is about 20 cm or 8 inches in diameter.   Its stem becomes pink and the complementary coloured yellow pores and mauve cap  make it a splendid sight on the Australian eucalypt forest floor.    It is certainly a boletale fungus but whether it is a bolete or one of the other genera must await  scientific analysis.

As shown below,  this bolete grows from white mycelium and the buttons are tightly convex to sub-globose. 

The stem begins as white, velvety and sometimes caepetose,  meaning  that two mushrooms can be joined at their base. 

The tan stains on the stem were from bruising via rubbing against  forest floor debris as the lines on the right hand specimen shows.  

Notice also the  viscid amber sweat beads  around the base. 

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The cap matures to become almost flat with  slightly incurved, uneven  and wavy  margins.

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Aerolate surface

Its  skin begins as finely velvet  mauve, but becomes areolate, meaning that it develops fine cracks  that expose underlying yellow skin.

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This Bolete mushroom's Pores and Tubes are  initially white and very tightly packed  before becoming  yellow and wider.   The mature pores have multiple shapes and the sporeprint is yellow-brown.

It's flesh is thick, white and does not bruise when cut or exposed to air.

Found: Several years running,  early in the season in narrow peppermint bushland, (EVC 45) in Forrest,  the northern edge of Australia's Otway ranges.