The Lurid Bolete, Suillelus luridus

At the start of the KFC visit to Pilot's Wood and Meenfield Wood, which is a woodland complex near Badger's Mount and Polhill, and next to the Kent Wildlife Trust's chalk grassland reserve of Polhill Bank, the group quickly came across a very small patch of the quite colourful Lurid Bolete, Suillelus luridus, which I hadn't seen before and we didn't see again that day.   

Initially it looks quite a demure bolete with its overall matt brownish appearance, which I would have described as mainly khaki, with only subtle hints of apricot, in contrast to the book descriptions which rather emphasise the apricot. But looking a bit closer, you see the bright orange-reddish pore surface as well as the strong red reticulum over the yellowish stem and the intense blue when you cut the flesh or bruise the pores, together with a "purplish" base to the cut stem, and the overall impression is of a rather garish bolete! In these specimens the colour of the caps is quite matt, but still shows the apricot tinges of the published descriptions.

However, I failed, critically, to pick up the red colour in the line above the pores, this was clearly present but looked blue to me, but no-one else mentioned it, and the decision was very clear - luridus it was. This is a close-up of the cut surfaces. The patch at the base looked more orange to me rather than purple:

This is a close-up from the first photo above, showing the apricot colour of the stipe as well as the tinges in the pileus, what I think is the very strong, prominent reticulation with somewhat elongated meshes, and the deep and very rapid blueing of the pores and flesh.

In the UK it is said to have a preference for calcareous soils and to associate with Beech particularly, Oak and Limes, sometimes conifers. In mountainous regions it has been found in the presence of Mountain Avens. 

It should have had a pleasant fruity odour, although I didn't check. It is very variable, with named red and yellow varieties, and seems well spread throughout the UK, although not quite so well represented in Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

I had another look the following day at the same stand, and was able to separate the pore layer from the flesh above to reveal the base of the cap flesh from below and the thin layer of red (Bataille's line) that is characteristic of this species. In this specimen, not the best perhaps, it looked pink, with blue where bruising had occurred, and showed the "indentations" of the pore layer very clearly. The pore layer came away quite cleanly on the third attempt and this was definitely fun, as well as excellent confirmation of the announced identity!

I also looked more carefully for a better shot of the red reticulation over yellow, and here is the result, which I think is a little more convincing, although still not with as clearly elongated meshes as I was expecting.