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.