Boletus aereus, the dark cep, is a prized edible mushroom in the family Boletaceae. It is widely consumed in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, and generally throughout the Mediterranean. Described as a new species in 1789 by French mycologist Pierre Bulliard, it is closely related to several other European boletes, including B. reticulatus, B. pinophilus, and the popular B. edulis. The fungus predominantly grows near broad-leaved trees and shrubs in symbiosis with the roots, enveloping them with sheaths of fungal tissue. Quercus suber, the cork oak, is a key host. The spore-bearing mushrooms appear above ground in summer and autumn, growing a large dark brown cap, up to 30 cm (12 in) in diameter. Like other boletes, B. aereus releases its spores through pores on the underside of the cap instead of gills; this surface is whitish when young, aging to a greenish-yellow. The squat brown stalk, up to 15 cm (6 in) tall and 10 cm (4 in) thick, is partially covered with a raised network pattern.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boletus_aereus

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1885:

White miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming, U.S., attacked Chinese immigrants, killing at least 28 Chinese miners and causing approximately US$150,000 in property damage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Springs_massacre

1967:

Paddy Roy Bates proclaimed HM Fort Roughs, a former World War II Maunsell Sea Fort in the North Sea off the coast of Suffolk, England, as an independent sovereign state: the Principality of Sealand (pictured). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand

1998:

A fire on Swissair Flight 111, en route from New York City to Geneva, caused the aircraft to crash into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 229 people on board. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissair_Flight_111

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

dernier: (dated) Final, last. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dernier

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Free trade consists simply in letting people buy and sell as they want to buy and sell. It is protection that requires force, for it consists in preventing people from doing what they want to do. Protective tariffs are as much applications of force as are blockading squadrons, and their object is the same — to prevent trade. The difference between the two is that blockading squadrons are a means whereby nations seek to prevent their enemies from trading; protective tariffs are a means whereby nations attempt to prevent their own people from trading. What protection teaches us, is to do to ourselves in time of peace what enemies seek to do to us in time of war.   --Henry George https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_George