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Members of the order Boletales (commonly referred to as Boletes) are mushrooms characterized by holding their spores in small pores on the underside of the mushroom, instead of gills (as are found in agarics). Nearly as widely distributed as agarics, they include the king bolete, much sought after by mushroom hunters. The order Boletales has about 70 species (0,4% of the described homobasidiomycetes).
Similar to boletes, and generally only distinguished technically, are polypores.
Boletes are a relatively safe group of mushrooms for human consumption (none are known to be deadly to adults), provided that one:
- Eats only young specimens
- Avoids mushrooms with red or orange pore surfaces
- Avoids those that stain or bruise blue to green (a common trait)
- Avoids all Leccinium species with an orange cap
Two of the best common edible boletus however are bay boletus, whose gills bruise blue-green, and orange birch boletus, which is a Leccinum (not Leccinium) with an orange cap and which bruises a bluish grey (but which should not be eaten raw)
Note that to be safe, a positive identification should always still be made before consumption. Additionally, just because something is edible doesn't mean that it should be eaten, or will taste good at all.
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