Key Features:

• Cap white to pale gray or buff, bald, not sticky or slimy.

• Underside of cap with a sponge layer; pore (sponge) surface white when young, then yellowish and finally olive or brownish, not staining blue or brown when bruised.

• Stalk thick (at least 1"), whitish (never yellow).

• Stalk surface finely netted, at least at top.

• Flesh white, not staining blue or brown when bruised or cut.

• Taste mild or nutty, not bitter.

 Other Features: Medium-sized to large; individual pores barely visible when white; stalk with or without a bulb at base; veil absent; spores dark olive-brown.

 Where: On ground in forests and at their edges, often in groups; restricted to drier regions (Great Basin, Southwest, California). In the Southwest it is often abundant under ponderosa pine; in coastal California it favors oak.

 Edibility: Excellent- as good as the king bolete.

 Note: For many years this handsome mushroom passed as a white form of the king bolete. It was finally recognized as a distinct species and named after Chuck Barrows who pioneered the study of mushrooms in New Mexico and the Southwest.