Boletes

PNW foragers find boletes to be one of the best groups of mushrooms for the table. Foragers enjoy their superior texture, size, ease of identification, and reduced risk of eating a toxic species.

One can find many edible boletes near cities like Seattle, Vancouver and Portland but boletes fruit in greater abundance in the forests throughout Washington, Oregon, and BC. There are many bolete species however foragers focus on only a small number of them

What is a bolete?

There are a few ways that a mushroom might be categorized as a bolete. The most commonly used characteristic is a spongy, porous underside of the cap that can be removed easily from the rest of the flesh.

Another group of mushrooms known as polypores also have pores however these cannot be easily removed from the flesh. Polypores are typically more leathery or woody than the fleshy boletes

When can you find boletes in Washington and Oregon?

Boletes are fruit most abundantly in the fall with the return of the autumn rains. Boletes begin to show up in the warmer spring months and will increase in abundance until late fall as snow returns to the mountains.

The varied elevations and microclimates throughout the Pacific Northwest create opportunities to find boletes from early spring through the fall.

What kinds of boletes can be found in Washington and Oregon?

There are well over 100 unique bolete species in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Here are some of the characteristics that are most useful for identification

CAP TEXTURE: viscid, slimy, sticky, fuzzy, bumpy, or cracked

PORES: size, color, bruising when damaged

STEM: reticulations, scabers, ring, color

TASTE: mild, bitter, pepper, lemon