Daedalea quercina - Oak Mazegill

Taxonomy

Phylum: Basidiomycota

Class: Agaricomycetes

Order: Polyporales

Usually solitary, this large imposing bracket fungus sometimes occurs in tiers, particularly on the cut ends of felled oak trunks. It is less often seen on other kinds of hardwood timber.

Daedalea quercina is sometimes referred to as the Maze-gill Fungus, because the very wide gill-like pores are radially-aligned in a pattern that resembles a maze. It is from its labyrinthine gill-like pores that this bracket fungus gets its generic scientific name. In Greek mythology, Daedalus constructed a labyrinth at Knossos for King Minos of Crete, and in that labyrinth lived the Minotaur - half-man, half-bull.

Identification Guide

	Cap Most often seen on oak stumps, the caps of this cork-like bracket grows to between 6 and 20cm across and is 2 to 5cm thick.
	Tubes and Pores The pores are in the form of large slots interconnected to form a maze-like structure with the slots generally aligned radially. Ochraceous, the gill-like slots are 1 to 4cm deep.
Spore print	White.
Odour/taste	Slight acrid odour; no distinctive taste but a very tough texture.
Habitat	On dead oak wood and, less frequently, sweet chestnut.
Season	All year round, but shedding spores in late summer and autumn.
Occurrence	Infrequent.
Similar species	Daedaleopsis confragosa, the Blushing Bracket, has smaller pore openings many of which are in the form of closed slots. Lenzites betulinus is similar, with thinner cream 'gills'; it occurs mainly on birch trees.