Rare Mushroom Found
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Rare Mushroom Found ☆
Discovery Made by 10 year old
Silas Claypool, a 10-year-old from Barrington, Rhode Island, frequently rides his bike on the East Bay bike path with his father, Rick Claypool. During one of their rides in early September, Silas discovered a rare mushroom called Boletus billieae, commonly known as Billie’s Bolete. According to Silas, he finds lots of mushrooms on the bike path, but he knew this find was something different.
Silas’s father Rick Claypool snapped a few photos and shared the observation on iNaturalist. To their astonishment, experts identified it as one of the 20 species featured in the Fungal Diversity Survey’s Northeast Rare Fungi Challenge. This marked the first documented instance of Billie’s Bolete in Rhode Island, a truly fantastic fungal discovery. When I asked Silas about finding a rare mushroom, he said, “Some fungi might not be rare, just overlooked.” These are wise words from such a young person.
Billie’s Bolete is a mycorrhizal species — it has a symbiotic relationship with nearby trees. Without these trees, the fungi can not survive. Understanding ecological communities helps assess risk, monitor change, and improve decisions with respect to future land management. The significance of this discovery was so profound that local newspapers and news stations covered the story, helping to spread awareness about the importance of Fungi.
Reminding us all that the Fungi WE see matter!
The specimen of Billie’s Bolete was dried and mailed to the Fungal Diversity Survey for DNA sequencing and further scientific investigation by mycologists.
*photos of Boletus billieae courtesy of Rick Claypool
