Panus rudis

Polyporus brumaliPanus rudis

Taxonomy

Phylum: Basidiomycota

Class: Agaricomycetes

Order: Polyporales

Family: Polyporaceae

Panus is a small genus of tough wood-rotting fungi whose fruitbodies are usually purple tinged when young and fresh; they grow rather like oyster mushrooms or Split Gill fungi, with a very short eccentric stem, wavy margins, and shallowish gills that fork.

Panus rudis occurs on dead deciduous hardwood in southern Europe. Although reported twice in Britain there are doubts about the accuracy of identification: they may have been confused with Panus conchatus.

Despite having gills, fungi in the genus Panus are now thought to be much more closely related to the Polypores than to the Agaricales - another example of parallel evolution. (Oyster mushrooms of the Pleurotus genus are, in contrast, classified in the order Agaricales.)

Identification Guide

Cap

Usually semi-circular or oyster-shaped when growing on standing wood, but as shown in the picture above rosette forms can occur when fruiting on dead wood lying on the ground.

Caps are up to 10cm across, developing wavy margins; tough; densely fuzzy; reddish to purplish-brown when young, fading to tan with age.

Stem

Very stubby and often invisble because it is embedded within the substrate; cooured and fuzzily textured like the cap.

Gills

Pale mauve or pale purple when young and fresh, turning paler and later browning with age; decurrent to the stem.

Spore print

White.

Odour/taste

Not distinctive.

Habitat

Restricted to dead hardwood - usually on fallen trunks and branches, particularly oaks.

Season

Summer through to winter; often into spring in mild parts of southern Europe.

Occurrence

Fairly common.

Similar species

Panrus conchatus is similar but not fuzzy; it is occasionally found in Britain and other northern European countries.