(i) Pored and toothed fungi

(a) Colonisers of tree trunks, stumps and branches

Polyporus squamosus Fries Scaly polypore

Cap: 100-300 mm. Stem: width 25-50 mm; length 25-75 mm.

Description:

Cap: fan-shaped or semicircular, spreading horizontally with age, ochre-yellow or straw-coloured with dark brown, flattened scales in concentric zones which are much more dense at the centre.

Stem: short, stout, white at apex and netted with pale creamy buff about middle, but dark brown or black towards the base and attached to the side of the cap.

Tubes: whitish to yellowish and decurrent with large, angular, irregularly fringed, whitish or cream-coloured pores.

Flesh: with strong, not very pleasant smell, cream-coloured or white.

Spore-print: white.

Spores: long, oblong or elongate ellipsoid, hyaline under the microscope (10-15 × 4-5 µm) and not blueing in solutions containing iodine.

Habitat & Distribution: An easily recognisable fungus growing on stumps and old living trees, especially of sycamore and elm where it often forms tiers of caps from late spring until autumn; however, they decompose rapidly and almost completely disappear by the next year when new fruit-bodies may appear in the same place, a phenomenon which may take place for several consecutive seasons.

General Information: The genus Polyporus is in most text-books, a big and unwieldy genus joining together all fleshy, annual fungi possessing tubes; even the boleti (see [p. 32]) have been included! Many of these species are now considered less closely related one to another than previously thought. Boleti differ from polypores, however, in their less tough and distinctly putrescent fruit-body, and in the fact that the margin of the cap extends but does not continue to grow during the life-cycle; the margin of the polypore fruit-body is active and may burst into growth again when favourable weather conditions occur. The ‘Scaly polypore’ has a flesh which consists of two types of hyphae: (i) hyphae of unlimited growth with abundant protoplasmic contents which stain easily and which collapse on drying; and (ii) thick-walled, strengthening hyphae which bind the thin walled hyphae together. Laetiporus sulphureus (Fries) Murrill ‘Sulphur polypore’ has a single type of hyphae in the tubes, i.e. thin walled generative, and only a few binding hyphae in the flesh. It has an orange cap with a rather thick, sulphur or chrome-yellow margin, sulphur-yellow tubes and pores and yellow, then pale buff, flesh. The spore-print is white and the spores hyaline, pip-shaped and medium sized, (5-7 × 4-5 µm).

Plate 44. Woody fungi: Spores white and borne within tubes—fruit-body annual

[Larger illustration]

Illustrations: P. squamosus—F 43b; Hvass 267; LH 75; NB 1291; WD 941. L. sulphureus—Hvass 268; LH 73; NB 1293; WD 942.

Some common annual polypores
Piptoporus betulinus (Fries) Karsten Birch polypore

Cap: 75-200 mm, kidney-shaped or hoof-shaped, smooth, covered by a thin, separable and greyish silvery or pale brownish skin; cap-margin thick, incurved and projects beyond the tubes.

Stem: rudimentary, simply a small hump below which the fungus develops.

Tubes, pores and spore-print: white.

Spores: sausage-shaped, and thin-walled hyaline under the microscope and very narrow, (5-6 × 1-2 µm). It grows on birch throughout the country where it causes a sap wood-rot which finally converts the inner timber to a red-brown friable mass. The flesh, which contains thickened binding hyphae, is used for mounting insects and for sharpening knives, hence the common name ‘Razor-strop fungus’.

Illustrations: Hvass 269; LH 67; NB 1174; WD 933.

Inonotus hispidus (Fries) Karsten Shaggy polypore

Cap: 100-250 mm, kidney-shaped, yellow-brown to rust-brown, but finally almost black, at first covered with shaggy hairs, but these tend to mat together with age.

Stem: absent.

Tubes and flesh: rust-colour; pores at first yellow, but finally red-brown.

Spore-print: yellow-brown.

Spores: medium sized (8-9 × 7-8 µm) and globose under the microscope. It grows on various broad leaved trees, especially ash where it causes a spongy, white heart-wood rot. The flesh contains hyphae with thick, brown walls.

Illustrations: LH 63; WD 961.

Plate 45. Woody fungi—annual polypores

[Larger illustration]

Phaeolus schweinitzii (Fries) Patouillard

Cap: 100-300 mm, bracket-shaped or tub-shaped, dark brown with a knobbly, velvety, roughened and grooved surface; margin at first golden yellow.

Stem: absent or short, thick and brown.

Tubes and pores: greenish yellow.

Flesh: deep rust-brown.

Spore-print: greenish yellow.

Spores: medium sized, greenish under the microscope, ellipsoid and about 8 × 4 µm in size, (7-8 × 3-4 µm). This fungus is found on conifers or near conifer stumps where it is attached to the roots; it causes a brown cubical heart-wood rot; the flesh of the fruit-body is composed of only one type of hyphae.

Illustrations: LH 67; NB 1113; WD 951.

Meripilus giganteus (Fries) Karsten Giant polypore

Cap: 75-100 mm, or even up to 200 mm wide, grouped and forming a tuft of caps up to 750 mm across. The individual caps are fan-shaped, pliable, rather thin and yellow-brown to snuff-brown with their margins wavy and cream colour or yellowish.

Stem: replaced by a united mass of caps.

Tubes, pores and flesh: white and very soft, but becoming black on bruising.

Spores: small, pip-shaped, hyaline under the microscope and 5-6 × 4-5 µm. This fungus is a common sight forming masses at the base of broad-leaved trees; it is common on beech. It is a soft, fibrous polypore as a result of the lack in the flesh of thick-walled specialised hyphae.

Illustrations: Hvass 277; LH 73; NB 1294; WD 931.

The spores of all the annual polypores described above do not blue when placed in solutions containing iodine.

Coriolus versicolor (Fries) Quélet Many zoned polypore

Cap: 25-60 mm. Stem: absent.

Description: [Plate 46].

Cap: semi-circular, flattened, thin, tough and flexible when fresh with the surface velvety and marked with smoother, paler concentric zones giving a pattern of yellow-brown, grey or darker greenish grey zones; the margin is thin and is the palest of the zones and may be wavy or lobed.

Tubes: white with small, round and rough-edged to angular white or cream-coloured pores which become yellowish with age.

Flesh: white, tough and continuous with the tube tissue and so not allowing one to detect any difference between the tissues.

Spore-print: white.

Spores: medium sized, oblong and hyaline under the microscope, and 6-8 × 2-3 µm; not blueing in solutions containing iodine.

Habitat & Distribution: Very common on stumps, trunks and fallen branches of various trees, especially beech; it is to be found throughout the year.

General Information: It is often associated with nodulose masses of fungal tissue which are covered in small poroid areas and are very confusing when found by the beginner; they are simply growth-forms of Coriolus versicolor; such forms are frequently found on old house-timbers exposed to the weather, particularly window frames where it forms a distinct rot. Its flesh consists of thin-walled hyphae and binding hyphae as in Polyporus squamosus as well as an additional thick-walled type called skeletal hyphae. It would appear that several polypores are capable of producing the amorphous growths mentioned above, some of which contain hyphal fragments called conidia.

The bands of colour on the cap of the ‘many zoned polypore’ are retained after drying and from a group of fruit-bodies the most attractively zoned can be selected, mounted on small pieces of wood or cardboard and fitted at the back with a pin. Such preparations make very attractive brooches and have been used even by modern designers to contrast with their fashion creations.

There are many pale tubed polypores growing on wood. Daedalea quercina Fries ‘Mazegill’, grows on oak and has irregular maze-like pores; Lenzites betulina (Fries) Fries, grows on birch, has tough plates which resemble the gills of an agaric. Datronia mollis (Fries) Donk forms thick spreading resupinate patches on beech, sometimes with irregular dark brown caps formed by the upturned margin. Several species of Tyromyces occur in Britain and are characterised by their white pores and tubes and the white or pale-coloured caps. Bjerkandera adusta (Fries) Karsten has a grey pore-surface and is also frequently found on beech.

Illustrations: F 44a; LH 69; NB 1173; WD 512.

Ganoderma europaeum Steyaert Common ganoderma

Cap: 100-350 mm. Stem: absent.

Description: [Plate 47].

Cap: bracket-shaped, rather flat at margin but humpy and irregular about the middle, frequently concentrically zoned, smooth and only slightly shiny; its margin is whitish or pale greyish.

Tubes: red-brown or cinnamon-brown, obscurely layered and with small, white pores flushed with pale cinnamon-brown, but deep red-brown when rubbed or with age.

Flesh: with a fragrant smell, deep red brown and felty-fibrous.

Spore-print: dark cinnamon-brown.

Spores: long, oval with truncate apex, smooth, but reticulate on the inner surface of the inner wall giving the spores a patterned appearance when seen under the microscope; 10-11 × 6-7 µm in size.

Habitat & Distribution: This fungus is common on various trees, especially beech and can be found throughout the year.

General Information: This common Ganoderma is perennial and distinguished from other polypore groups by the complex spores. G. applanatum (Fries) Karsten is closely related, but differs in the thinner fruit-body with a thin margin, and the pale cinnamon-brown flesh; the flesh of both species contains thick-walled binding and strengthening hyphae as well as the generative hyphae.

So sensitive are the pores to bruising that if a drawing or writing is executed on the lower surface with a pin, needle or similar sharp instrument and the fungus dried, the red-brown lines produced are retained and the pattern preserved. Several fungus paintings prepared in this way were made in the early part of the century, many beautiful ones having originated in the eastern part of North America.

Plate 46. Woody fungi: Spores white and borne within tubes or on thickened plates

[Larger illustration]

Fomes fomentarius whose important characters are described below has frequently been confused with Ganoderma europaeum. It is common growing on birch in Scotland, but is less frequent south of Perth, and then grows probably more frequently on beech which is similar to the pattern found on the continent of Europe. However, it has grown in former periods in England on birch, for it was found commonly amongst birch timbers in an excavation of an early Mesolithic lake side village near Scarborough, Yorkshire.

Illustrations: NB 1253; WD 1602.

Some perennial polypores. [Plate 48].
Fomes fomentarius (Fries) Kickx Tinder fungus

Cap: 90-300 mm, hoof-shaped, thick, broadly attached to the substrate, zoned with yellow-brown and shades of grey; its margin is blunt and fawn or pale brownish.

Tubes: layered, cinnamon-brown with pale cinnamon pores with a whitish bloom.

Flesh: cinnamon-brown or buff and woolly.

Spore-print: white.

Spores: elongate, ellipsoid, very long, hyaline under the microscope, 15-18 × 5-6 µm, and not ornamented. The flesh contains both thick- and thin-walled hyphae. It grows on birch and less frequently on beech. The flesh has been used in dentistry, in manufacturing fancy articles, such as mats, and was the basis of the tinder used in flint-boxes.

Illustrations: LH 65; NB 1171; WD 1001.

Phellinus igniarius (Fries) Quélet ‘Willow Fomes’

, grows on willows and causes their heart-rot. It is a rust-brown, woody fungus with a hard crust and brown tubes and flesh. The spore-print is white and composed of small, spherical, hyaline spores, 5-6 µm in diameter. The flesh contains thin- and thick-walled hyphae.

Illustrations: LH 63; WD 993.

Plate 47. Woody Fungi: Spores brown and borne within tubes—fruit-body perennial

[Larger illustration]

Oxyporus populinus (Fries) Donk

, grows on various sorts of broad-leaved trees, particularly poplars and often becomes covered in mosses and algae. It has a pale buff or cream-coloured cap, white flesh, pores, tubes and spores.

Illustrations: LH 67.

Cryptoderma pini (Fries) Imaz

, grows on conifers often several feet above the ground. It has a woody, deeply cracked upper surface, dark red-brown flesh, tubes and pores. Its spores are small, broadly ellipsoid and brown.

Heterobasidion annosum (Fries) Brefeld Root fomes

Variable, sometimes possessing a cap, sometimes resupinate except for the upturned margin, flattened or shell-shaped, red-brown to blackish at the centre but pale at the margin, which when seen from below is always white. The tubes are in layers and like the pores, flesh and spore-print are white. The spores are broadly ellipsoid, small, smooth, hyaline and 4-5 × 4 µm. The flesh is fairly tough as it contains both generative hyphae and skeletal hyphae. It is frequent on the roots and lower parts of stems of many trees and shrubs causing a rapid heart-rot of conifers and extensive damage to young trees.

Illustrations: LH 67; NB 1111; WD 981.

The spores of all the perennial polypores described above do not blue when placed in solutions containing iodine.

Plate 48. Woody fungi: Spores borne within tubes—perennial polypores

[Larger illustration]

Schizophyllum commune Fries Split-gill fungus

Cap: 10-25 mm. Stem: width 2-4 mm; length 2-4 mm.

Description:

Cap: greyish fawn becoming whitish when dry, fan or kidney-shaped, often lobed and covered in close-set hairs and with incurved margin.

Stem: absent or the cap simply narrows into a stem-like bump.

Gills: replaced by a series of grey-brown plates which when dry appear as if to split longitudinally and their edges roll back.

Flesh: brownish but drying whitish.

Spore-print: white.

Spores: medium sized, oblong, hyaline under the microscope, not blueing in solutions containing iodine and 6-7 × 2-5 µm in size.

Facial and marginal cystidia: absent.

Habitat & Distribution: Grows on fallen branches, trunks, dead wood, etc.

General Information: Easily recognised by the ‘gills’ radiating from a point and becoming ‘split’ when dry. Specimens of Schizophyllum sealed by A. H. R. Buller in a tube in 1911 have been shown on remoistening to unroll their gills and shed variable spores, after 521⁄2 years—probably a world record! The split-gill is a rather unique British fungus which appears to be much more closely related to the polypores than to the agarics—although it has for a long time been associated with the Oyster mushroom ([p. 74]). In fact, the splitting gills are two adjacent shallow dishes with spores produced on their inner surfaces. The cups separate on drying and therefore only superficially resemble gills splitting down the centre.

Another fungus which can also be associated with the idea of cups is Fistulina hepatica Fries ‘the Beef-steak fungus’. This fungus is a polypore in the widest sense. It may grow up to 250 mm wide and is reddish-brown or liver-coloured with reddish tubes and pale flesh-coloured pores; the tubes although free are aggregated together and can be easily separated individually with the fingers. This fungus is edible although very strong in taste, it produces a serious decay of oaks.

Illustrations: S. commune—LH 105; NB 1256; WD 693. F. hepatica—F 43a (lower figure); Hvass 278; LH 75; NB 1292; WD 1014.

Plate 49. Woody fungi: Spores white and borne on split-‘gills’

[Larger illustration]

(b) Destroyers of timber in buildings

Serpula lacrymans (Fries) Karsten Dry-rot fungus

Description:

Fruit-body: usually widely spreading, but sometimes forming a distinct bracket with the upper surface silvery or smokey grey, flushed with lilac or rose or yellowish.

Stem: absent and replaced by a series of dirty white or greyish mycelial threads or strands which can be traced up to 100 mm over the substrate.

Flesh: thin, dirty yellowish and composed of only one type of hypha.

Spores: borne in shallow pores which are part of a complicated network of rust-brown folds and ridges.

Spore-print: rust-brown.

Spores: medium sized, golden yellow, thick-walled and broadly ellipsoid, and 8-10 × 5-6 µm in size.

Cystidia: absent.

Habitat & Distribution: On worked wood in buildings and less commonly in timber-yards. It can be found throughout the year.

General Information: This fungus forms fan-like structures and strands of mycelium which pass along beams and joists and through plaster. Where there is a bad case of dry-rot, the room or building will have an unpleasant musty smell and when actually growing the fungus exudes droplets of water on the mycelium and fruit-body, i.e. weeping, hence the name ‘lacrymans’—weepy. It is a very important and destructive agent causing damage to floors and skirting boards, to joists and beams. It is a frequent pest of old houses and therefore of many of our cities. This fungus does not appear to have been found in the wild in Europe, but there is a record from the Himalayas. There are, however, very closely related species found on soil or wood-detritus. The Dry-rot fungus darkens the wood and produces a rot which makes the wood crack into small cubes or rectangular blocks.

This fungus was formerly placed in Merulius, but this genus should be retained for hyaline-spored fungi, e.g. M. tremellosus Fries, a species which grows even in winter on stumps of various trees in our woods.

Illustrations: LH 53; WD 1033.

Plate 50. Dry-rot fungi—leathery and tough spores borne in shallow irregular pores

[Larger illustration]

Coniophora puteana (Fries) Karsten Cellar or Wet-rot fungus

Description:

Fruit-body: variable in size, resupinate, composed of one type of hypha only and with a sterile whitish cream or yellow margin.

Spore-bearing tissue: an irregularly wrinkled or humpy, yellowish surface which then becomes olive-green or bronze-colour.

Spore-print: olivaceous brown.

Spores: olive-brown under the microscope, smooth, ellipsoid, thick-walled and 12-14 × 8-9 µm in size.

Cystidia: absent.

Habitat & Distribution: This fungus causes wet-rot in houses, but may also be found on stumps and fallen trunks in woodland.

General Information: The fungus causes a discolouration of worked timber and induces longitudinal cracking with only a few lateral hair-like cracks unlike timber attacked by the dry-rot fungus (see [p. 154]).

Illustrations: WD 1035.

Fibuloporia vaillantii (Fries) Bondarsev & Singer

Description:

Fruit-body: a resupinate layer of pores with cream-coloured or white sterile radiating margin.

Spore-bearing tissue: distributed within a series of small often shallow, white or ivory tubes.

Spore-print: white.

Spores: smooth, hyaline under the microscope, oblong 5-7 × 3-4 µm.

Cystidia: absent.

Habitat & Distribution: The dry-rot of houses, particularly in roof-systems.

General Information: Fibuloporia vaillantii is recognised by the white, resupinate pore-surface and fairly tough nature due to the presence of strengthening hyphae. Just as the genus Polyporus was found to be composed of several quite different elements (see [pp. 140-44]) and has since been split up into a number of different genera, the genus Poria has also been fragmented; one of the constituent genera is Fibuloporia. Amyloporia xantha (Fries) Bondarsev & Singer differs in having amyloid tissue and cystidia encrusted with crystals. The flesh contains both simple hyphae and thickened structural hyphae. It is yet another member of the large old unwieldy genus Poria and causes decay of worked wood, particularly the timbers of benching and staging in greenhouses. A. xantha has a sulphur-yellow pore-surface and is rather cheesy when handled.

Plate 51. Wet and Dry-rot fungi—leathery and tough and spores borne within shallow pores or on an uneven surface

[Larger illustration]

(c) Colonisers of cones

Auriscalpium vulgare S. F. Gray Ear-pick fungus

Cap: 8-12 mm. Stem: width 4-6 mm; length 40-75 mm.

Description:

Cap: kidney-shaped or semicircular, thin, date- or umber-brown, hairy, but paler towards the margin.

Stem: erect, slender, hairy, particularly at the base, and attached at the side of the cap (excentric).

Gills: replaced by flesh-coloured, then greyish brown spines.

Flesh: brown.

Spore-print: white.

Spores: small, hyaline, minutely spiny, spherical, 4-5 µm in diameter, and becoming blue-grey in solutions containing iodine.

Cystidia: flask-shaped with oily contents.

Habitat & Distribution: This fungus is always found on fallen pine-cones and occurs from early summer to autumn.

General Information: The ear-pick fungus is easily recognised by the slender, elegant habit, excentrically placed cap, substrate preference and dark colours. It cannot be confused with any other fungus. Recently it has been shown that the ‘agaric’ Lentinellus cochleatus (Fries) Karsten ([p. 76]) is more closely related to Auriscalpium than this fungus is to other spine-bearing forms and Lentinellus is to the other agarics. Both fungi possess thick-walled cells in the flesh and oil-containing hyphae; they are placed in the family Auriscalpiaceae.

Another laterally stemmed Hedgehog fungus differs in possessing distinctly gelatinised teeth and preference for conifer wood and not cones. Examination of the basidia of this fungus shows that it is more closely related to the jelly-fungi, Exidia and Tremella ([p. 184]) than to Hedgehog fungi such as Auriscalpium or Hyndum repandum Fries ([p. 160]). This false nature is reflected in the name of the genus to which it belongs, Pseudohydnum, and the very gelatinous texture in the specific name ‘gelatinosum’: the fungus is Pseudohydnum gelatinosum, or as it used to be called Tremellodon gelatinosum.

Illustrations: Auriscalpium vulgare—WD 1036. Pseudohydnum gelatinosum—WD 1059.

Plate 52. Tough or leathery fungi: Spores white and borne on spines—Ear pick fungus

[Larger illustration]

(d) Terrestrial forms

Hydnum repandum Fries Wood-hedgehog

Cap: 50-75 mm width. Stem: width 10-17 mm; length 45-65 mm.

Description:

Cap: rather thick, fleshy, pinkish buff or tan, paler at its incurved and often lobed margin.

Stem: short, stout and powdered with white roughenings and often attached to the cap to one side of the centre.

Gills: replaced by awl-shaped, pinkish buff spines which are unequal in length and run down the top of the stem.

Flesh: white, firm and with a pleasant smell.

Spore-print: whitish.

Spores: medium sized, hyaline under the microscope, smooth, broadly ellipsoid, 7 × 6-7 µm, and not becoming bluish grey in solutions containing iodine.

Cystidia: absent.

Habitat & Distribution: The ‘wood-hedgehog’ grows on the ground in mixed woods and is easily recognised by its colour and fleshy texture.

General Information: The closely related, smaller, red-brown species H. rufescens Persoon grows with conifers. Hydnum was formerly a genus which contained several entities, now not considered closely related. Thus the following genera have been delimited in addition to those related to Hydnum repandum and H. rufescens, and Auriscalpium described on [p. 158].

Sarcodon: Fruit-body fleshy: spores brown and ornamented with irregular bumps, e.g. S. imbricatum (Fries) Karsten.

Phellodon: Fruit-body tough and fibrous: spores white and ornamented with small spines, e.g. P. niger (Fries) Karsten.

Hydnellum: Fruit-body tough and fibrous: spores brown and ornamented with irregular bumps and bosses, e.g. H. scrobiculatum (Secretan) Karsten.

Bankera: Fruit-body fleshy: spores white and ornamented with small spines, e.g. B. fuliginoalbum (Fries) Pouzar.

Illustrations: Hvass 280; LH 61; NB 1533; WD 534; Z 61.

Plate 53. Tough or leathery fungi: Spores whitish and borne on spines

[Larger illustration]