Dyer's mazegill

Description:

This fairly common polypore has a yellow felty margin and a brownish central region, usually concentrically zoned. The glistening pore surface is sometimes hidden from view because of the low-growing habit of these fruitbodies. Typically 15 to 25 cm in diameter and 2 to 5 cm thick. When there is a stem it is brown, and the attachment is either central or eccentric. Stems are short up to 6 cm in length and stout typically 3 to 5 cm in diameter, tapering towards the base. Initially the fruitbodies are soft and spongy, eventually becoming dry and hard. Often compound, they tend to grow around and so enclose twigs, pine needles, grass and other objects as the caps expand. The tube layer can be up to 1.5 cm thick, with pores spaced at 1 to 3 per mm on a greenish-yellow background that gradually turns reddish brown with age. Occasionally adjacent tubes may fuse together to produce a few large irregular pores.

Habitat:

This polypore occurs throughout Europe and in many other parts of the world including North America. Phaeolus schweinitzii is parasitic on the roots of coniferous trees, particularly pines and spruces also occasionally larches. It can kill its host, whereupon it turns saprobic and feeds on the dead roots and stumps once the tree topples or is felled.

Notes:

Spotted at the base of a fallen conifer tree in a coniferous forest at Renderklippen, Veluwe, Holland. (sources:see reference)