Cornflower bolete

How to recognise it: cornflower bolete

1. 1

   Flesh turns cornflower-blue instantly

2. 2

   Stem brittle, chambered inside

3. 3

   Pale, felty cap

4. 4

   Only on sand

Description

Cap

3.5–12 cm across, straw-yellow, cream to yellow-brown; surface dry, matt, felty-tufted; turns blue when pressed.

Tubes and pores

Tubes and pores white, then cream, turn blue when touched; spore print pale yellow.

Stem

Same colour as the cap, brittle, chambered inside (with hollow cavities); turns intensely blue when pressed.

Flesh

White or yellowish, turns intensely cornflower-blue immediately when cut.

Smell and taste

Smell and taste indistinct.

Where and when it grows

Only sandy soils: pine forests in the lowlands, less often broadleaf and mixed forests, e.g. mountain beech woods.

Most often with: pine, birch, oak, beech

Where are conditions good today?

Look-alikes: what it can be mistaken for

• 

  Devil's bolete Poisonous low risk

  Other bluing boletes (e.g. the poisonous devil's bolete) have red pores and a solid stem; the cornflower bolete has white pores and a chambered stem. Not in this atlas: Gyroporus castaneus (chestnut bolete; rusty-brown cap, flesh does not turn blue) – also edible.

  Step-by-step comparison: Cornflower bolete or devil's bolete →

In the kitchen

Soups, sauces, drying. The bluing does not affect the taste.

Protection and sale

• Species protection: the species is not protected.
• Sale: the species is on the list of mushrooms approved for sale (it may be sold only with a mushroom inspector’s certificate).

Where you may pick mushrooms →