Part 44

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.

~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