The King Bolete is a big, sturdy mushroom with a smooth to slightly wrinkled brown cap, often tacky in wet weather, and instead of gills it has a spongy layer of pores underneath. When young the pores are white and look stuffed with cotton; as the mushroom ages they turn yellowish and then a dingy olive green. The thick stem is often swollen toward the base and covered, especially near the top, with fine white netting. The flesh is white and does not change color when cut.
Like many boletes, it is mycorrhizal: it grows in partnership with the roots of living trees, and the mushroom is only the fruiting body of a much larger network in the soil. Kings are tied to conifers such as spruces and pines, and in the western mountains their relatives fruit in spring as well as later in the year. Fly larvae often tunnel through older mushrooms.
The name hides a puzzle. Mycologists debate whether the true European Boletus edulis grows in North America at all, and several western kings have been described as separate species, including the spring king (Boletus rex-veris), which fruits in clusters in the mountains of California and the Pacific Northwest, and the queen bolete (Boletus regineus) of montane Oregon and Washington. Sightings labeled King Bolete on Mt. Hood may include more than one of these.
How to identify it
Cap about 3 to 10 inches across, yellow-brown to reddish brown, smooth to wrinkled, tacky when wet. Pores white and stuffed when young, aging to yellow and then olive. Stem thick, often club-shaped, with fine white netting near the top. Flesh white and unchanging when cut, surfaces not bruising, and spore print olive-brown.
Look-alikes
The spring king and the queen bolete are close relatives that look much the same; the queen has a darker cap with a whitish bloom when young. A bolete whose flesh or pores change color when cut or handled is not a king.
Habitat
On the ground near conifers such as spruces and pines, alone or in groups. In the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, close relatives fruit in spring, sometimes in clusters.
Photos
Sightings in the forest
157 research-grade sightings in Mt. Hood National Forest on iNaturalist, most recently on October 18, 2026. See them on iNaturalist →