Conservation Status: Not of concern

The genus Boletopsis is related to some of the spine-fungi such as sarcodons and hydnellums as well as thelephoras, and like them, is ectomycorrhizal. While considered fleshy, the fruitbodies are rather tough and long-lived. The flesh is solid, white, and bitter-tasting. The spores are brownish and angular in outline, a feature that helps separate this genus from Albatrellus and Polyporoletus. Various names have been applied to our western boletopsises and, indeed, the number of species and their tree hosts remain unclear. Current though suggests that at least three speccies could occur in the PNW. Our commonest one semms to be B. grisea, which apparently occurs mostly with pine; it has a dull gray to blackish, often radially streaked, cap that sometimes is slightly scaly near the center. The similar B. leucomelaena occurs mainly with spruce.

Sources: Trudell, Steve and Joe Ammirati. Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest. Portland, Timber Press, Inc. 2009.