While out foraging and mushroom hunting in the North Cascades, I encountered a wild looking mushroom that I had never seen before! Similar to the dark bitter boletes (Caloboletus conifericola) found nearby, this mushroom begins to stain blue almost instantly upon being cut. You'll notice that it has a reticulate cap that displays quite an intricate pattern of netting/webbing. This is Gastroboletus ruber.

I stumbled across a patch of these beautiful mushrooms in the North Cascades on August 15th, 2024.

This genus of mushrooms is used for secotioid fungi that are similar to Boletus and is not super well studied or understood. To my knowledge, this is a relatively rare species that is only known to occur here in the Pacific Northwest.

Special thanks to viewers (namely @whoe_whate8487) for assisting in the process of accurately ID-ing this one!

If you have knowledge on this one, I'd love to learn from you in the comments below!

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