Phylum: Basidiomycota
Class: Agaricomycetes
Order: Polyporales
Family: Polyporaceae
Although most polypores grow as either crusts or brackets, there are a few that form cup-like fruitbodies. One of these is Tiger’s Eye, a very attractive cup-and-stem fungus that grows in humus-rich sandy soil on woodland edges and on acidic heathland.
Young specimens have downy infertile (upper) cap surfaces but the down is only transient; older caps usually have radial furrows and irregular, wrinkled margins.
Cap |
Shallow, thin-fleshed cup, 3 to 10cm dia.; upper surface velvety, becoming smooth, concentrically zoned in shades of ochre, mid brown and red-brown, margin pale. |
Pores |
Grey-brown, angular; tubes decurrent, 3 to 4 per mm. |
Spore print |
Golden brown. |
Odour/taste |
Not distinctive. |
Habitat |
On sandy soil on woodland edges and heathland. |
Season |
Perennial, sporulating in the autumn. |
Occurrence |
Uncommon. |
Similar species |
Trametes versicolor, Turkeytail, sometimes produces rosettes but they are generally lobed and produce white spores. |
Fascinated by Fungi, Pat O'Reilly 2011
Dictionary of the Fungi; Paul M. Kirk, Paul F. Cannon, David W. Minter and J. A. Stalpers; CABI, 2008
Taxonomic history and synonym information on these pages is drawn from many sources but in particular from the British Mycological Society's GB Checklist of Fungi and (for basidiomycetes) on Kew's Checklist of the British & Irish Basidiomycota.