Boletales
From Freepedia
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| Image:Boletinus cavipes yellow variety.jpg Boletinus cavipes | ||||||||
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Boletaceae |
Boletes, the best known members of the order Boletales are mushrooms characterized by holding their spores in a spongy mass of vertical tubes (pores) on the underside of the mushroom, instead of on gills (as are found in agarics). Boletes belong to the botanical families Boletaceae and Gyroporaceae, the latter small group previously not having been separated.
The order also includes some gilled mushrooms (Paxillus, Gomphidius, ...) which have the same flesh texture as the Boletes, spore-bearing tissue which is also easily separable from the cap, and similar microscopic characteristics of spores and cystidia.
The order Boletales has about 70 species (0,4% of the described homobasidiomycetes).
The polypores (order Polyporales) are similar to Boletales in that their spore-bearing structures consist of a layer of vertical tubes. However their flesh has a much tougher consistency and they are not closely related taxonomically.
