Photo by C. G. Lloyd.
Plate XLV. Figure 324.—Polyporus Berkeleyi. Reduced. Natural size being 2½ feet across.
Polyporus giganteus. Fr.
The Giant Polyporus. Edible.
Giganteus is from gigas, a giant. The pileoli are very numerous, imbricated, fleshy, tough, somewhat coriaceous, flaccid, somewhat zoned; color a grayish-brown in young specimens, the deep cream pore surfaces tipping the pileoli, rendering it a very attractive plant; this cream-color is quickly changed to black or deep-brown by touching it.
The pores are minute, shallow, round, pallid, at length torn.
The stem is branched, connate from a common tuber.