wide, with spirally arranged, faint golden encrusting pigments that can be seen in KOH, Melzer's reagent, and water. Clamp connections are absent in this species. Varieties The typical variety of Boletellus ananas has consistently larger fruit bodies than B. ananas var. minor Singer from Brazil and Nicaragua, and lacks the thick-walled cheilocystidia of B. ananas var. crassotunicatus Singer from Nicaragua and Panama. Edibility Although the mushroom is used as a food in Mexico, field guides list it as "inedible" or "not recommended". Similar species Strobilomyces strobilaceus is roughly similar in appearance because of its rough scaly cap and lacerated margin, but may be distinguished from B. ananas by smooth stem without a ring, different spores, and flesh that is less tough. The Australian species Boletellus ananaeceps has spores with narrow longitudinal ribs that do not have cross-striae. B. dissiliens has colors that are not red as in B. ananas, and pores that can become reddish in maturity. Further, the cap flesh of B. dissiliens turns blue upon exposure to air. Ecology, habitat and distribution The fruit bodies of B. ananas typically grow scattered or in groups under oak and pine trees, often on their bases. In Guyana, the mushroom typically fruits singly or in pairs within above ground level on the trunks of the tropical tree Dicymbe corymbosa (subfamily Caesalpinioideae), associated with ectomycorrhizas within humic accumulations. It is rarely found fruiting on the ground on heavily decayed, root-penetrated wood. Rolf Singer suggested that the fungus was not mycorrhizal, noting that as well as occurring under or on the bases of both pine and oaks, it occurred in scanty humus and debris accumulated on rock walls. Singer concluded that the species prefers to grow on hard surfaces. Harry D. Thiers, in his study of the bolete flora of Texas, wrote that B. ananas was a rare species that often fruited abundantly following an extended period of rain and high humidity. Some varieties of B. ananas from southeastern North America, Costa Rica, Brazil, Panama, Nicaragua, and Guyana have been noted to fruit on tree trunks, although terrestrial fruiting has been reported in Malaysia and Central America. Due to the typically elevated fruiting habit and occurrence on dead wood, the ectomycorrhizal status of B. ananas has been debated; in the protolog Murrill noted "it always occurs either as a wound parasite on pine trunks or about the base of living pine trees." All