Where does Lanmaoa sit in the fungal tree?
Lanmaoa is a genus of the Boletaceae, the main family of pored, fleshy mushrooms, in the order Boletales. Molecular phylogenies place it in a lineage of blue-staining boletes with yellow pores that was once lumped into Boletus. L. asiatica is the type species, the reference specimen for the genus name.
| Kingdom | Fungi |
|---|---|
| Phylum | Basidiomycota |
| Class | Agaricomycetes |
| Order | Boletales |
| Family | Boletaceae |
| Genus | Lanmaoa G. Wu, Halling & Zhu L. Yang |
| Species | Lanmaoa asiatica G. Wu & Zhu L. Yang |
Other species now placed in Lanmaoa include North American taxa such as L. carminipes and the European L. fragrans, formerly Boletus fragrans. The genus is still being revised as more collections are sequenced, so check MycoBank for the current species list.
Which features identify it in the field?
Look for a combination: a dry, finely velvety cap in rose-red to brick-red; a bright yellow pore surface with small pores; a yellow stipe flushed red toward the base, without a raised net pattern; and yellow flesh that turns blue within seconds of cutting. No single character is enough on its own.
- Cap: 4–12 cm, convex becoming flat, surface dry, colour fading with age.
- Pores: yellow, becoming olive-yellow in age, bruising blue fast.
- Stipe: yellow apex, red to reddish-brown lower part, smooth or with fine points, no prominent reticulum.
- Flesh: pale yellow, bluing quickly when cut, then slowly fading.
- Smell and taste: mild. Never taste raw material from this genus.
Why does it stain blue?
Bolete tissue contains pulvinic acid derivatives, mainly variegatic and xerocomic acid. When cells are damaged, these are oxidised to blue quinone methide anions. The speed and intensity of bluing is a useful field character, but many unrelated boletes blue too, so it narrows the options without settling the identification.
What should I look at under the microscope?
Mount spores and a scalp of the cap surface in water, 3% KOH and Melzer’s reagent. Check spore shape and colour in deposit, the structure of the cap cuticle and the cystidia on the pore edges. Compare your measurements with the protologue, the original published description, rather than with field guides.
We do not reproduce measurements here because published ranges differ between sources and between collections. If micromorphology is central to your study, ask for whole fruiting bodies from a single batch so you can take spore prints yourself.
How is identity confirmed with DNA?
The standard fungal barcode is the ITS region of nuclear ribosomal DNA (Schoch et al. 2012). Sequence ITS from a small tissue sample and compare it with reference sequences from type or well-documented collections. For close relatives within Lanmaoa, protein-coding genes such as TEF1 resolve species that ITS alone may not separate.
Every batch we release has an ITS check against reference material. The sequence data for your batch is available on request for publication or deposit.
Which misidentifications are most common?
The usual confusions are with other red or pink bluing boletes sold in the same markets: Butyriboletus roseoflavus, Baorangia species and red-pored Rubroboletus. Dried slices are harder still, because cap colour and stipe ornament fade. Our comparison article covers the separating characters.
References
- Schoch C.L. et al. (2012). Nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region as a universal DNA barcode marker for Fungi. PNAS 109: 6241–6246.
- Wu G. et al. (2016). Four new genera of the fungal family Boletaceae. Fungal Diversity 81.
- Velíšek J. and Cejpek K. (2011). Pigments of higher fungi: a review. Czech Journal of Food Sciences 29.