Sutorius australiensis (Bougher & Thiers) Halling & Fechner

  • Family

    Boletaceae (Basidiomycota)

  • Scientific Name

    Sutorius australiensis (Bougher & Thiers) Halling & Fechner

  • Primary Citation

    Sutorius: a new genus for Boletus eximius.
    Mycologia 104: 957. 2012

  • Basionym

    Leccinum australiense Bougher & Thiers

  • Description

    Description: Pileus (3–)7–5.9(–11) cm broad, convex to plano-convex to plane, dry or viscid (in wet weather), finely matted to matted subtomentose, sometimes finely velutinous with a subtle to distinct hoary bloom at first, brown (7E6-5), dark (chocolate) brown (7,8,9F8,7), reddish brown (8E8), violet brown (10D4-11E4) to lilac brown (11D4) (especially toward margin), to nearly black in some, becoming brown (7E6,5), even at margin or sometimes with a slight sterile extension. Flesh white to pale lilac, with pinkish brown to brownish lilac marbling/mottling, with mild odor and flavor that is mild to slightly unpleasant, slightly bitter. Tubes adnexed to deeply depressed, lilac whitish when young, soon flesh (6A-B3) to light brown (6D4), with pores stuffed and violet brown (11F5) when young, becoming brown (7E6,5) to cocoa brown (6E7) with age, bruising a cinnamon brown. Stipe (2.5–)4–6(–8.5) cm long, 1–2 cm broad, strict or curved, equal to subclavate, dry, finely subsquamulose to finely scabrous-scissurate on a pale lilac ground (16D3) or very nearly white, with scales a pinkish brown to pinkish lilac to violet brown or a dull brown (7E6-5, 8E3), with interior whitish to lilac brown to grayish lilac and mottled, becoming streaked with pale brown or light brownish orange staining, white and matted to tomentose at base with white basal mycelium or occasionally mixed with a short brown, ocher tomentum, sometimes "brownish tomentose" (Hongo 1973, PNG).

    Description (cont.): Spores red brown in deposit, 11.9–15.4(–16.8) × 3.5–4.9 µm (n = 15, x = 13.9 × 4.1 µm, Q = 3.38), light brown in KOH, smooth and thin-walled, ellipsoid to subfusoid to fusoid, inamyloid. Basidia 20–34 × 8.11 µm, clavate, hyaline, four-sterigmate. Hymenial cystidia 20–40× 6.8 µm, scattered and uncommon, thin-walled, with hyaline to granular and golden to pale brown contents, narrowly fusoid. Tube trama boletoid and divergent, with central stratum brown to golden yellow; the lateral strata elements hyaline, 3.5–8.4 µm wide, subgelatinous with age, often with amorphous dark lilac to pinkish orange-brown pigment deposits. Pileipellis hyphae a trichodermium, in KOH yellow ochraceous, inamyloid; elements 3.5–6 µm wide, elongated to cylindrical or obtuse, encrusted with pigment (but dissolving in KOH), thin-walled, not gelatinized. Pileus trama interwoven, hyaline, inamyloid, thin-walled. Stipitipellis hyphae vertically oriented, parallel, giving rise to clusters of caulocystidia, 20–30 × 5.15 µm wide, cylindrical to clavate to subfusoid, hyaline to brown contents, with encrusting pigment present (with dark brown or lilac to purple acerose crystals dissolving in KOH). Stipe trama hyphae parallel, cylindrical, hyaline, inamyloid, often with amorphous dark lilac to pinkish orange brown pigment deposits. Clamp connections absent.

    Registration number: MB563944

    Ectomycorrhiza: Myrtaceae (Corymbia, Eucalyptus, Lophostemon, Syncarpia); Casuarinaceae (Allocasuarina).

    Distribution: Australia (Queensland, ACT, New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria). Possibly Papua New Guinea with Fagaceae (Hongo, T. 1973. 21. Enumeration of the Hygrophoraceae, Boletaceae and Strobilomycetaceae. Bull Nat Sci Mus Tokyo 16:537–557.).

    Commentary: As near as we can tell, R. Heim's specimen of B. nigroviolaceus from Papua New Guinea is not available from PC. The original description of B. nigroviolaceus (Heim 1963) and color illustration in Heim (1965) portray a deeply pigmented Sutorius recalling material collected in Queensland. Hongo's (1973) report of B. nigroviolaceus from PNG was decreed by him (Hongo 1975) to be nothing more than S. eximius (as a Tylopilus). Additional material from PNG could add support for the Austral lineage. For the specimens supporting the description of Leccinum australiense (Bougher and Thiers 1991), a spore print is included with the holotype specimen along with a Kodachrome transparency showing three, intensely colored basidiomes (one cut lengthwise), a bit on the young side and just approaching maturity. The paratype also includes a Kodachrome illustrating a Sutorius. The microscopic features presented by Bougher and Thiers (1991) sufficiently show those features. At present, an Australian indigenous Leccinum in the classical/typical sense of Lannoy and Estades (1995) or Den Bakker and Noordeloos (2005) is still unknown.

  • Sorry, no descriptions available for this record.