Birch polypore

Description:

Our group went outside and in to the woods to identify any mushrooms we found. The mushrooms my group found were mostly off the trail around trees. I chose this mushroom to identify. It grows mostly on dead trees but sometimes living trees too. The season we were there at was Winter. The classification scheme was: Kingdom: Fungi Phylum: Basidiomycota Class: Agaricomycetes Order: Polyporales Family: Fomitopsidaceae Genus: Piptoporus

Habitat:

There was snow on the ground and the mushrooms were deep in the woods. My guess for the temperature that day was between the 50’s and 60’s. Most mushrooms were found in the shade and few were found in the sunlight. The sky had a few clouds. The soil didn’t look good for growing certain plants. There was no wind that day.

Notes:

The mushroom I picked to identify was this one. The mushroom has a cap and the color of the cap is brown. The mushroom is dry. There are oak, pine, birch, and hemlock trees nearby. This mushroom was not near any other fungi. Cap shape is round and the spore print is white/tan. There is no collar or stalk.