Description |
This very common polypore is grey-brown at
first and almost spherical, flattening and turning browner on top and
white underneath as it matures.
10 to 25 cm in diameter and 2 to 6 cm thick, the fruiting bodies arise
singly but there are often several on the same host tree. |
Tubes and Pores |
The small white tubes are packed together at a
density of 3 or 4 per mm; they are between 1.5 and 5 mm deep and terminate
in white pores that turn buff as they age. |
Spore print |
White. |
Odour/taste |
Bitter tasting, these polypores have a faint
but not unpleasant taste. |
Habitat |
Restricted to dead or dying birch trees. |
Season |
Although you may see these bracket fungi
persisting throughout the year, they are annuals and release spores in
late summer and autumn. |
Occurrence |
Very common. |
Similar species |
- Although mature specimens are shaped very much like the Dryad's Saddle
fungus, Polyporus squamosus,
it is difficult to confuse this polypore with any other species
because of its distinctive colouring and specific restriction to birch
trunks.
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