Polypore variable

Description:

Typically fruiting on smaller hardwood sticks and decaying branches, this polypore is easily recognized by its fairly small size, its whitish pore surface, and its black, or half-black, central stem. It is widely distributed across North America, and appears to vary somewhat in the color and texture of its cap. Like many polypores it is rather tough, and can manage to "stay up" for quite a while in dry weather--resulting in older specimens with faded, nearly white caps and sordid brownish pore surfaces ( http://www.mushroomexpert.com/polyporus_... )

Habitat:

location: Europe edibility: Inedible fungus colour: White to cream, Yellow, Grey to beige normal size: 5-15cm cap type: Funnel shaped stem type: Lateral, rudimentary or absent flesh: Pore material cannot be seperated from flesh of the cap spore colour: White, cream or yellowish habitat: Grows on wood Polyporus varius Pers. ex Fr. Veränderlicher Porling Polypore variable. Cap 1–10cm across, infundibuliform, or irregularly kidney-shaped, depressed above the point of attachment to the stem, wavy and often lobed at the margin, ochre-brown with fine radial lines becoming tobacco-brown with age. Stem 5–30 x 5–15mm, lateral or off-centre, the basal part brown-black. Flesh white when fresh, drying corky and cream-coloured, tough and leathery. Taste slightly bitter, smell faint and mushroomy. Tubes 0.5–2.5mm long, decurrent down the stem, white to cream. Pores 4–7 per mm, circular, white becoming ochraceous-brown. Spores white, ellipsoid to fusiform, 5–9 x 3–4um. Hyphal structure dimitic with generative and binding hyphae; generative hyphae with clamp connections. Habitat on dead or dying deciduous trees. Season late spring to autumn, annual. Occasional. Not edible. Found In Europe ( http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/D... )

Notes:

Derivation of name: Polyporus means "many pores"; varius means "different" or "changing." Synonymy: Polyporus elegans Bull.: Fr. Common names: Elegant polypore. Phylum: Basidiomycota Order: Polyporales Family: Polyporaceae Occurrence on wood substrate: Saprobic; solitary to scattered on dead deciduous wood, sometimes on conifers; June through November. Dimensions: Caps 1-12 cm wide; stipes 0.5-7.5 cm long and 1.5-15 mm thick, central to lateral. Upper surface: Yellowish to ochre to tan; smooth; glabrous; not zonate; sometimes with radial striations. Pore surface: White to gray or yellowish; pores 4-5 per mm. Edibility: Inedible. Comments: The black base of the stalk is an important field character ( http://www.messiah.edu/Oakes/fungi_on_wo... ) ( http://www.mycobank.org/MycoTaxo.aspx?Li... )