Polyporus tuberaster - Tuberous Polypore

Taxonomy

Phylum: Basidiomycota

Class: Agaricomycetes

Order: Polyporales

An uncommon find, the Tuberous Polypore grows on fallen branches of deciduous hardwood trees. It is reported that sometimes these funnel-shaped polypores grow from a sclerotium-like tuber (a hard mass of mycelium that stores food reserves, enabling the fruitbody to survive harsh environmental conditions).

These woodland fungi are easily overlooked, as often the caps are darker than those on the left and blend in with a background of dead leaves.

Other polypores that either mainly or at least sometimes have central (or nearly central) stems include Albatrellus ovinus and Albatrellus subrufescens, Polyporus brumalis, and Phaeolus schweinitzii as well as some of the bracket fungi - particularly in the genera Trametes, Bjerkandera and Meripilus.

Identification Guide

	Cap 5 to 10cm across; round rather than bracket shaped; slightly or deeply funnelled; light brown to dark orange-brown and covered in small scales, sometimes concentrically zoned; the thin margin is often downturned or inrolled.
Tubes and pores	The white or cream, angular pores are deeply decurrent, leaving little or no bare stem.
Stem	Rudimentary, pale; reported to be attached to a sclerotium in some instances (but certainly not generally so in Britain and Ireland).
Odour/taste	Not significant.
Habitat	Most often found growing on buried rotten hardwoods, particularly Beech.
Season	Summer and autumn.
Occurrence	Uncommon.
Similar species	Dryad's Saddle, Polyporus squamosus, occasionally forms trumpet-shaped fruitbodies arising from roots under the leaf litter; however, it has a black stem base and larger cap scales than the Tuberous Polypore.