September in London’s woodlands brings forth a fascinating array of boletes—mushrooms with character as varied as their names. From the scaly-stemmed birch boletes with their sooty-speckled stalks to the bright orange-capped L. versipelle, each species tells its own story. Some are modest edibles enjoyed by foragers, while others—like the prized Slippery Jacks—are cherished by London’s Chinese community for their texture and culinary versatility. And then there are the real curiosities: tiny boletes growing out of earthballs, or the unforgettable “Old Man of the Woods,” a rare, cone-like mushroom cloaked in black scales. These fungal treasures are reminders of the hidden wonders thriving in London’s commons and heaths.
Return on September 21st to discover the full story of these mysterious boletes!
Article
Scaly-Stemmed Boletes
The scaly-stemmed boletes are a small group of more sombre coloured, often soft, mushrooms usually found in birch woods. All of them are edible but only one or two are in the least worthwhile. In London it is probably the brown birch bolete Leccinum scaber that is encountered most with its hazel coloured cap and long stem covered in dark, sooty scales. The cap is often wet and sticky to the touch and there is rarely enough flesh to merit picking. L. duriusculum, the Slate bolete is very similar but far more solid, making it slightly more desirable for cooking. The culinary prize in this small group is unfortunately not very common in London.
This is the impressive orange birch bolete L. versipelle which has a bright orange cap which instantly gives it away. This is a large, sturdy species which some find indigestible, but the Russian community in London seek out for making soup. Other species easier than most to identify are L. carpini and L. crocipodium, both of which have cracked caps. In the former, the cap looks not unlike dry, cracked mud and in the latter yellow flesh can be seen between the cracks accounting for its English name – the Saffron bolete. The mottled bolete L. variicolor is often paler than the rest. It is very like L. scaber but colours a lot more. The pores bruise rose-pink as does the flesh when it is cut, getting even redder when rubbed.
Sometimes the base of the stem is a bluish green colour. Paler specimens found in wetter areas among sphagnum moss may well be the Ghost bolete L. holopus or perhaps the albino form of L. brunneogriseolum. Although birch thickets in places such as Hayes, Stanmore and Wimbledon commons are the best places to look for these boletes, one or two other Leccinium rarities can be found under hazel, aspen or spruce.
Another group of boletes have distinctly wet, glutinous caps. These include Slippery Jack Suillus luteus and its allies S. bovinus and S. granulatus. Suillus spp. tend to have bright yellow flesh or pores, although Slippery Jack has a purple brown cap and S. bovinus is generally the colour of a Jersey cow. They can all be relatively easily found in Scot’s pine woods around London e.g. Ockham heath, and are all edible once you have removed the sticky, viscous covering on their caps. They are ignored by most Londoners but enjoyed by the Chinese community who particularly like their texture. They dry them first before rehydrating and then adding to stir fries. One other species S. grevillei prefers to grow under larch and so is rare in London as so little larch has been planted, although it does grow on Mickelham down.
The final group of boletes is a rag bag of oddities compared with the uniformity of the other groups. However, two notable species do stand out, B. parasiticus and Strobilomyces strobilaceus. The first of these always causes consternation when it is found, as a cluster of these tiny boletes appear to be growing on the surface of another totally different fungus i.e. the earthball Scleroderma citrinum. Their relationship is a complex one with both having an association with the same host tree. They can usually be found easily enough in Nower wood.
The second is one of the strangest mushrooms on the planet and once seen is never forgotten. The Old man of the woods S. strobilaceus got its name because people thought it looked like a dying mushroom. To say it just looks like a cone pushing up through the ground is not to do it justice. Its ominous-looking cap is covered in strange, soot black scales which turn upwards giving the appearance of a cone. When cut, its white flesh can turn an alarming orange-red before changing again to bistre. When found on a foray it always eclipses all the other fungi seen. Unfortunately, it is now very rare and vulnerable enough to be included on the Red data list, but this old man is still likely to inhabit some of the beech woods in the Thames valley.
