What is "strobilomyces"

Strobilomyces is a genus of boletes ( mushrooms having a spongy mass of pores under the cap). The only well-known European species is the type species S. strobilaceus (also named S. floccopus), known in English as "old man of the woods".

Members of the genus can be distinguished by the following characteristics:

• the cap and stipe are covered in soft hairy or woolly scales,
• while most boletes have smooth elongated spores, those of Strobilomyces are roughly spherical and prominently ornamented, and
• as might be expected from its "dry" fibrous appearance, it is resistant to decay (whereas most mushrooms in the Boletaceae are soft and decompose notoriously rapidly).