The Boletes of Essex
GEOFFREY KIBBY & TONY BONIFACE*
43 Keevil Drive, Southfields, London SE19 6TE
*40 Pentland Avenue, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 4AZ
The boletes and their relatives in Epping Forest
Epping Forest is a rich site foT boletes with 65 species recorded, being particularly well represented
by those species which are mycorrhizal with broadleaf trees. Lacking any large areas of conifers,
the few records that exist for conifer mycorrhizals arc mostly very old, from the days of the Pearson
(1938) list or even older. The Forest is also rather poor in those species which prefer calcareous
soils, particularly the large and spectacular members of the Boletus satanas and B. rhodopurpureus
group, of which the two existing records are both over a hundred years old. The genus Leccinum,
distinguished by its floccose-scabrous stem, is well represented, and regular searches of the birch,
oak and poplar communities will undoubtedly reveal further species as time goes on, now that we
have good identification literature with which to tackle them. We have one of the very first records
for L. atrostipitatum - a species described from North America - in Britain, and this species in
particular needs to be refound and photographed if possible, especially young material. Other rare
species of bolete known or believed to occur here - but without dried material to back them up -
are Xerocomus ripariellus, X. communis, and Boletus pseudoregius.
This list treats Boletales in the broad sense and thus includes the gilled fungi comprising Gomphidius,
Paxillus and Hygrophoropsis. As a general rule the taxonomy of the bolete genera follows that of
Watling (1970). The name Xerocomus is used here at the generic level, since it is now of widespread
usage in popular field guides and specialist books even though it is probably best regarded as a
subgenus (at best) of Boletus.
Aureoboletus cramesinus
Boletus aereus
Boletus appendiculatus
Boletus badius
Boletus calopus
Boletus edulis
Boletus erythropus (see plate 12)
Boletus fech tneri
Boletus impolitus (see plate 11)
Boletus luridus
Boletus parasiticus
Boletus pseudoregius ?
Boletus pulverulentus
Boletus queletii
Rare, but widespread from Staples Brook to the
Robin Hood public house area under Beech.
Very uncommon, along Green Ride and by Staples
Brook under oak.
Occasional to frequent in some years.
Common everywhere.
Very uncommon, only two or three Forest records.
Common everywhere; probably several taxa
involved under this name.
Frequent, widespread.
Rare, one recent record, which needs confirmation.
Rare, scattered records by the Forest edges.
Rare, very local, no recent records. Cooke &
English (1882).
Frequent, widespread.
Very rare, needs confirmation.
Very uncommon, mainly woodland edges.
Rare, very local, prefers alkaline soils.
Boletus radicans(= albidus) (see plate 10) Rare to occasional, mostly Forest edges.
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 19 (2002)
135