Afroboletus

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title: "Afroboletus" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["boletales", "boletales-genera"] description: "Genus of fungi" topic_path: "general/boletales" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afroboletus" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Genus of fungi ::

| image = Afroboletus luteolus in field.jpg | image_caption = | taxon = Afroboletus | authority = Pegler & T.W.K.Young (1981) | type_species = Afroboletus pterosporus | type_species_authority = (Singer) Pegler & T.W.K.Young (1981) | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision =

• A. azureotinctus
• A. costatisporus
• A. elegans
• A. lepidellus
• A. luteolus
• A. multijugus
• A. pterosporus

Afroboletus is a genus of fungi in the family Boletaceae. The genus, circumscribed in 1981, contains seven species found in tropical Africa.

Taxonomy

When defining the genus, Pegler and Young placed it in the family Strobilomycetaceae, and considered Afroboletus to be a "primitive" and possibly ancestral member of the group because of the form of its basidia and spores, the reticulation of the stem, tropical distribution, and non-mycorrhizal requirements of its species.

Description

Fruit bodies of Afroboletus species have fleshy caps that are hemispherical or convex to applanate (horizontally flattened). As it ages, the cap surface becomes fuliginous (sooty) and black, developing pustules or scales. The cap margin is appendiculate, meaning that partial veil remnants hang along the cap margin. On the cap underside, the pore surface comprises tubes that are adnately attached to the stipe. The pore surface appears swollen, and is initially white before turning greyish or pale pinkish. The tubes are relatively long, measuring 1.5 –, and there are typically 1–2 pores per millimeter. Stipes are slender, cylindrical, firm, and solid (i.e., not hollow). The colour of the stipe surface is similar to that of the cap, and also eventually turns blackish. The veil is persistent, fluffy, and sometimes leaves a ring on the stipe. The flesh is whitish, discoloring black on exposure.

Spore prints are dark fuscous brown. Spores are short-ellipsoid with a deep yellowish-brown colour. Their surface features an intricate ornamentation of 8–12 large, winged, longitudinal costae interspersed with ridges, and a thickened rim at the base. Basidia (spore-bearing cells) are pear-shaped and bear four sterigmata. Cystidia are club-shaped to lance-shaped, thin-walled, and have a brown pigment contained within vacuoles. The hymenophoral tissue is bilaterally divergent, and contains gelatinized layers. The cap cuticle is arranged in a trichodermial palisade (erect, roughly parallel chains of closely packed cells) consisting of short cylindrical or sac-like, thick-walled cells with brown contents. The hyphae lack clamp connections.

Species

There are seven species recognized in Afroboletus, all from tropical Africa:

::data[format=table] | Image | Name | Authority | Year | Distribution | [[File:Afroboletus luteolus.jpg|120px]] | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Afroboletus azureotinctus | Watling | 1993 | Zambia | | | | Afroboletus costatisporus | (Beeli) Watling | 1993 | Congo | | | | Afroboletus elegans | Heinem. & Rammeloo | 1995 | Burundi | | | | Afroboletus lepidellus | (E.-J. Gilbert ex Heinem.) Watling | 1993 | Cameroon | | | | Afroboletus luteolus | (Heinem.) Pegler & T.W.K.Young | 1981 | | | | | Afroboletus multijugus | Heinem. & Rammeloo | 1995 | Burundi | | | | Afroboletus pterosporus | (Singer) Pegler & T.W.K.Young | 1981 | Liberia | | | ::

Uses

Both Afroboletus costatisporus and A. luteolus are used as food.

References

References

1. Boa E.. (2004). "Wild Edible Fungi: A Global Overview of Their Use and Importance to People (Non-Wood Forest Products)". Food & Agriculture Organization of the UN.
2. (1995). "Ethnomycological notes from western Burundi". Belgian Journal of Botany.
3. (1995). "Taxa nova Boletineae africanae". Bulletin du Jardin Botanique National de Belgique.
4. (2008). "Dictionary of the Fungi". CAB International.
5. Malaisse F.. (1995). "How to Live and Survive in Zambezian Open Forest". Presses Agronomiques de Gembloux.
6. (1981). "A natural arrangement of the Boletales, with reference to spore morphology". Transactions of the British Mycological Society.
7. Pegler DN.. (1982). "Agaricoid and Boletoid Fungi (Basidiomycota) from Malaŵi and Zambia". Kew Bulletin.
8. (1993). "Boletes from South & East Central Africa – I". Edinburgh Journal of Botany.

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