Bjerkandera adusta - Smoky Bracket

Taxonomy

Phylum: Basidiomycota

Class: Agaricomycetes

Order: Polyporiales

A very variable small-pored fungus, the Smoky Bracket can occur either as a resupinate crust on the underside of a fallen branch, as a reflexed bracket on the side of dead hardwood (or very occasionally on conifer wood), or even as a rounded cap with a short stem (see small image below) when growing on the upper surface of dead wood. Despite its shape-shifting capability, this crust fungus is recognisable by its grey fertile surface. (NB Some place this species in Hapalopilaceae.)

Main picture courtesy David Adamson.

Picture below by First Nature.

Identification Guide

	Cap forms In crust, bracket or cap form; 2 to 6cm across; when resupinate or in cap form, the infertile surface is felty, becoming smooth; rounded, concentrically ringed in ochre, grey-brown and mid brown. Tubes and pores The fertile surface is covered in shallow tubes with minute greyish pores, which are pale buff at the margin.
Spore print	White.
Odour/taste	Not distinctive.
Habitat	On dead hardwood, and very occasionally on dead conifers.
Season	Summer, autumn and early winter.
Occurrence	Fairly common.
Similar species	Trametes versicolor, Turkeytail, has a white fertile surface rather than grey.