Views: 9 Author: Wu Gang, Feng Bang. Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences Publish Time: 2023-05-17 Origin: Mycosystema
Boletus has always been the "star" of mushrooms, a delicacy on the table. As a rare alpine edible boletus, Boletus reticuloceps (M. Zang, M.S. Yuan & M.Q. Gong) Q.B. Wang & Y.J. Yao has a striking coat, but few people know it, because it is only in It grows quietly in the alpine dark coniferous forest deep in the mountains.
Fig 1. Boletus reticuloceps, provided by Associate Researcher Wu Gang, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences
The Boletus reticuloceps was originally placed in the genus Aureoboletus, which was later found to belong to the genus Boletus. The reason why it can be called "the king of alpine boletus" is firstly because it is distributed at a high altitude, up to 4300 meters, and may be the boletus with the highest distribution altitude in the genus Boletus. It is currently known that it is mainly distributed in the spruce and fir forests in Yunnan, Sichuan, Tibet, Hubei and Taiwan. Secondly, Boletus reticulum has a strong body, the diameter of the cap can reach more than 30 cm, and the appearance is eye-catching. The surface of the cap is rough and forms a net shape, which is obviously different from other species. Not only that, but its spores are also larger when viewed under a microscope than other species of the same genus. From the morphological point of view, the "big" has been fully expressed by Boletus reticulum, and this "big size (external shape) megaspore (microstructure)" may be the perfect expression of its adaptation to the alpine region.
Fig. 2 Boletus reticuloceps, provided by Professor Chen Zuohong of Hunan Normal University
Boletus reticuloceps reticulum is only distributed on alpine "islands" and never expands to lower altitudes. Because of this, scholars used to think that it might have a sky island distribution pattern similar to animals and plants. This is not the case, however, and its alpine "island" populations have unusually frequent gene flow, making it even more mysterious. Whether this reason is caused by the generalization of the host plant or the aerial transmission of spores, or other reasons, needs more evidence in the future to reveal.
Fig 3. Habitat of Boletus reticuloceps, courtesy of Wu Gang, associate researcher at Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences
