Assessment Notes

Justification

Boletus rex-veris is a common bolete in the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range in California, and across the Cascade Range, Blue Mountains and the northern Rocky Mountains in the Pacific Northwest. This species is edible and is often collected for food by foragers, but there is no reported evidence of decline despite several localized threats having been identified. It is listed as Least Concern (LC).

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Taxonomic notes

For many years this well-known species was considered a form of Boletus edulis (Thiers 1975) or Boletus pinophilus (Bessette et al. 2000). Arora (1986) calls attention to the different 'color forms', and and states "sometimes called Boletus edulis var. pinicola (=B. pinicola, B. pinophilus(?)". It was formally described as a distinct species, based on a California type collection (Arora 2008).

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Geographic range

This species occcurs in mid to high elevation forests of Sierra Nevada, Cascade Range and Siskiyou mountains of California. It is also found in the Cascade Range in Oregon and Washington (mostly on the eastern slopes), into southern British Columbia in Canada, and east through the Blue Mountain into the northern Rocky Mountains in Idaho and Montana. There area also scattered Coast Range records.

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Population and Trends

The population is widespread and occurs in multiple coniferous forest habitat types in the western North American mountains. This species is common, and the population appears to be stable.

Population Trend: stable

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Habitat and Ecology

It is ectomycorrhizal with conifers in montane conifer forests; especially with Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa), Lodgepole Pine (P. contorta murrayana), and true firs (Abies spp.) (Arora 2008). Fruiting occurs in spring and summer.

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Threats

Because of the widespread area, and different eco-zones, this species occurs in threats to this species are localized, and are likely to have little affect on the population overall. Droughts and climate change in the Californian mountains have led to mountain pine beetle outbreaks. Decades of fire suppression have drastically altered western montane forests leading to thicker, denser, Abies-dominated forests; and as a result hotter, stand-replacing fires (rather than patchwork and understory burns) are commonplace, altering appropriate habitat drastically and making it ill-suited for this species.

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Conservation Actions

No specific conservation actions are needed with regards to this species, and no specific research is needed either with regards to this species.

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Use and Trade

Boletus rex-veris is an edible species, and is widely harvested (even commercially) across much of its range.

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Source and Citation

Siegel, N. 2021. Boletus rex-veris. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021: e.T195922965A195925818. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-2.RLTS.T195922965A195925818.en .Accessed on 27 September 2024

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