Blushing Bracket

Description:

--Scientific name: Daedaleopsis confragosa (Bolt.:Fr.) Schroet. --Derivation of name: Daedaleopsis means "having the appearance of Daedalea"; confragosa means rough, rugged and refers to the coarsely wrinkled and bumpy upper surface. --Synonymy: Daedalea confragosa Bolt.:Fr. --Common names: Thin-maze flat polypore. --Phylum: Basidiomycota --Order: Polyporales --Family: Polyporaceae --Occurrence on wood substrate: Saprobic; solitary or grouped on wood of decaying deciduous trees; June through December, found year-round. --Dimensions: Caps 2.5-15 cm wide; up to 2 cm thick. --Upper surface: Grayish to brownish; usually zonate with gray or brown or yellow-brown bands; surface shallowly grooved (sulcate), radially wrinkled or bumpy. --Pore surface: White to grayish, then brownish with age; surface bruises pinkish-brown when fresh; pores develop into a maze-like configuration with openings about 0.5-1.5 mm wide and thin tube walls (usually much less than 1 mm thick). --Edibility: Inedible. --Comments: Compare to Daedalea quercina which superficially resembles it ( http://www.messiah.edu/Oakes/fungi_on_wo... ), --- ( http://www.mycobank.org/MycoTaxo.aspx?Li... )

Habitat:

location: Europe edibility: Inedible fungus colour: Red or redish or pink, Grey to beige normal size: 5-15cm cap type: Other stem type: Lateral, rudimentary or absent flesh: Pore material cannot be seperated from flesh of the cap spore colour: Light to dark brown habitat: Grows in woods, Grows on wood Daedaleopsis confragosa (Bolt. ex Fr.) Schroet. syn. Trametes rubescens (A. & S.) Fr. Rauhe Tramete Tramète rougissante, Blushing Bracket. Bracket 8–22cm across, 4–10cm wide, 1.5–5cm thick, corky, single or tiered, margin thin and acute; upper surface radially wrinkled and concentrically ridged, reddish-brown. Flesh white then pinkish, finally pale brownish. Taste slightly bitter, smell none. Tubes 5–15mm long, cream-coloured. Pores large, usually somewhat elongate or slot-like, whitish readily bruising pink to red on handling when fresh, staining violet with ammonia. Spores white, cylindric 8–11 x 2–3µ. Hyphal structure trimitic. Habitat on deciduous trees, especially willow. Season all year. Frequent. Not edible. Found In Europe. ( http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/D... )

Notes:

Daedaleopsis confragosa is a highly variable species--or cluster of species, perhaps--recognized by its elongated, maze-like pores; its thin, whitish to brownish cap with zones of color; and the tendency of its pore surface to bruise reddish. However, each of these theoretically distinctive features is subject to variation. The pore surface can develop in odd ways, leading to confusion with round-pored species, or even with "gilled polypores" like Lenzites betulina. To make matters worse, the zones of color on the cap are not always clearly evident, and the pore surface does not always bruise red, especially if you are looking at an older specimen. See the comments below for help with eliminating look-alikes. In central Illinois, two distinct versions of Daedaleopsis confragosa are relatively common. The first is the "classic" version, with a zoned, brown cap. It grows on a variety of hardwoods, but seems to have a particular taste for the wood of dying flowering dogwood trees (Cornus florida). The second version (see the bottom illustrations) is nearly white, but otherwise more or less identical. I have found it on the wood of elms and willow. Description: Ecology: Saprobic; growing alone or gregariously on decaying hardwood logs and stumps, or rarely from the wounds of living hardwoods; partial to birch, willow, and many other hardwoods, but only rarely on oak; very rarely on conifer wood; summer through winter; widely distributed, but more commonly encountered east of the Rocky Mountains. The fungus produces "a white delignifying decay of the sapwood" (Overholts, p. 122); see the illustration to the right. In some types of host wood the rot is "associated with the formation of black lines in the decayed wood." Cap: 5-15 cm; broadly convex to more or less flat; fan-shaped or nearly round in outline; dry; smooth or minutely hairy; pale grayish to brown or reddish brown; typically with zones of color. Pore Surface: White, becoming dingy brownish in age; typically with elongated, maze-like pores and fairly thin walls between the pores, but sometimes with more or less round pores, or even with the pores elongated so much that they appear like gills; often bruising salmon pink to reddish when handled. Stem: Absent. Flesh: White, or pinkish to brownish; very tough. Spore Print: White. Chemical Reactions: All parts dark gray to black with KOH. Microscopic Features: Spores: 7-11 x 2-3 µ; smooth; cylindrical to elliptical. Daedalea confragosa is a former name ( http://www.mushroomexpert.com/daedaleops... )