Wine-red bolete
Boletaceae Family
Angles captured. Nine frames — one locating shot from standing height, then eight circling the fruitbody, including two looking down onto the damaged cap surface.
Morphology
The most striking find of the day. Cap 10–12 cm, deep wine-red to crimson-maroon, dry and matte, the surface broken in places to expose pale cream flesh beneath. Stipe very stout, mottled and streaked yellow-buff over a red flush, swelling downward. Where the cap is torn the flesh appears pale and does not obviously discolour in these frames.
Habitat & substrate
Oak leaf litter on a slope with low evergreen groundcover and scattered woody debris.
Lookalikes & what rules them out
Red-capped boletes with yellow stipes in eastern North America include Rubroboletus, Butyriboletus, Baorangia bicolor and Boletus sensu lato. Some of this group are edible and some cause serious gastrointestinal poisoning, and they are not separable from photographs.
To confirm this identification
Cut it and watch the flesh for 60 seconds. Instant deep blueing versus slow blueing versus none is the primary split here. Pore colour and any reticulation on the stipe are the next two characters.
Notes
Do not eat anything in this group on a photograph alone. The red-capped boletes are one of the genuinely dangerous look-alike complexes in the region.
Corrected. Frame #4329 was originally logged as a separate red Russula. It is this bolete photographed from standing height moments before the close-ups — the deep maroon cap and exposed pale flesh match exactly. That entry has been removed.
Found at Leominster State Forest, Leominster, MA on Thursday, 6 August 2026 at 11:49. See the full walk for that day's weather and everything else recorded.
Others in this group
Large orange-brown bolete, uprootedBoletaceae · Jul 31Low–moderate
Bolete with boletinoid poresSuillus or Phylloporus · Jul 31Moderate
Olive-brown boleteBoletaceae · Aug 6Low–moderate
Dark chestnut boleteBoletaceae · Aug 6Moderate
Orange-capped boletesBoletaceae · Aug 6Low–moderate
Red-capped bolete with yellow poresBoletaceae · Aug 8Moderate
Yellow-brown boleteBoletaceae · Aug 8Low–moderate
Red-brown bolete against a logBoletaceae · Aug 8Low