Central Pennsylvania Wild Mushroom Club

Barrie told me in a recent note that, due to the heavy rainfall this spring, he expected the boletes would begin showing by the middle of June this year.  Well, a few of them have arrived a little earlier than that.  I know that Ken found an interesting specimen and I found a small patch of boletes before the month of May had expired. 

Although not interesting from a dining perspective, my find, was a "two for one" deal.  The unidentified boletes were parasitized by another fungus known at the Bolete Eater or Hypomyces chrysospermum.  This fungus is believed to live with or on the mycelium of the host mushroom and fruits at the same time, covering the surface of the host.  The photo below shows mushrooms in various stages of infection, from the natural brown of the bolete to almost completely white. 

Actually, the Bolete Eater goes through three color phases.  It starts out white.  But in time it turns bright yellow.  Some of this yellow phase can be seen on the misshapen mushroom in the center.  It is my understanding that the parasite produces spores of a different shape during each phase and that the first two phases produce asexual spores.   The final, more rarely seen, sexual phase is reddish brown.   

Hypomyces chrysospermum is considered not edible and possibly poisonous.  In addition, the parasite makes identification of the host mushroom more difficult.  So you could possibly eat a poisonous host mushroom.  As if all that were not enough, the parasite is often associated with bacterial decay which may cause food poisoning and typically makes the mushroom soft and unappetizing.  It is certainly interesting to ponder the development of this parasite fungus - host fungus relationship but it does not make for good eating.  Comments invited as always. 

  Dave