Probably one of the most obscure of our British boletes is Strobilomyces floccopus (Fries) Karsten, the ‘Old Man of the Woods’. It has a black, white and grey woolly, scaly cap and stem, and the flesh distinctly reddens when exposed to the air. The spores are almost spherical, purple-black in colour and covered in a coarse network when seen under the microscope. All these characters readily separate Strobilomyces from all other European boletes; however, in Australasia, members of this and related genera form a very important part of the flora.
Chroogomphus rutilus (Fries) O. K. Miller Pine spike-cap
Cap: width 30-150 mm. Stem: width 10-18 mm; length 60-120 mm.
Description:
Cap: convex with a pronounced often sharp umbo, wine-coloured, flushed with bronze-colour at centre and yellow or ochre at margin, viscid but soon drying and then becoming paler and quite shiny.
Stem: yellowish orange, apricot-coloured or peach-coloured, streaked with dull wine-colour, spindle-shaped or narrowed gradually to the apex from a more or less pointed base.
Gills: arcuate-decurrent, distant, at first greyish sepia then dingy purplish with paler margin, but finally entirely dark purplish brown.
Flesh: lacking distinctive smell and reddish yellow or pale tan in the cap, rich apricot- or peach-colour towards the stem-base.
Spore-print: purplish black.
Spores: very long, spindle-shaped, smooth, olivaceous purple and greater than 20 µm in length (20-23 × 6-7 µm).