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Species Information
Summary: Ganoderma brownii is somewhat similar to the common Ganoderma applanatum but with a slight yellowish case to the pore surface, thicker, darker flesh, and larger spores.
found in CA (Gilbertson) and BC (Ginns(28), three collections)
Cap: up to 20cm x 10cm x 5cm, stemless, semicircular, flattened horizontally to hoof-shaped, cap surface "finely tomentose and yellowish at the growing margin, quickly becoming crustose" with a hard, horny crust up to 0.1cm thick; pale vinaceous to grayish brown; shallowly to deeply sulcate (grooved) and faintly zoned, (Gilbertson), 6.0-60.0cm broad, "fan-shaped to shelf-like, seldom hoof-shaped"; "brown to grayish brown"; "surface crustose, dull (not varnished), irregularly lumpy, often with concentric ridges and furrows", "typically dusted with brown spores", (Desjardin)
Flesh: up to 4cm thick, firm-fibrous; dark purplish brown; concentrically zonate, (Gilbertson), 1.0-6.0cm thick, "tough, woody to corky"; brown, (Desjardin)
Pores: 4-5 per mm, rounded, with very thick entire walls; "with a bright yellowish cast, bruising dark brown, the yellowish cast remaining on dried specimens"; tube layer "purplish brown, sharply differentiated from the context, tubes whitish within, up to 1.5cm thick" (Gilbertson), 4-6 per millimeter, "white, quickly bruising brown, becoming yellowish buff to buff-brown when dried"; tubes 0.4-1.3cm long, "stratified, in multiple layers separated by a thin layer of brown context tissue in older fruitbodies", brown, (Desjardin)
Stem: none (Gilbertson, Desjardin)
Chemical Reactions: flesh black in 3% KOH
Odor: indistinct (Desjardin)
Taste: indistinct (Desjardin)
Microscopic: spores 11-12 x 7-8 microns, broadly elliptic, inamyloid, brown in KOH, with a truncate apex and an apical germ pore, wall two-layered with interwall pillars; basidia 4-spored, about 23-11 microns, "collapsed and difficult to discern in type specimen, apparently broadly clavate with a sharply narrowed base"; cystidia absent; hyphal system trimitic: context generative hyphae 2.5-3.5 microns wide, obscure, colorless, thin-walled, with clamp connections, context skeletal hyphae 2-10 microns wide, pale brown in KOH, thick-walled, nonseptate, with occasional branching, context binding hyphae "rare to apparently absent in crushed mounts of context tissue", trama generative and skeletal hyphae similar, trama binding hyphae 2-5.5 microns wide, colorless to pale brown, "thick-walled, nonseptate, much branched", "often dendritically branched with tapering, pointed tips", (Gilbertson), 10-12 x 7-9 microns, broadly elliptic, inamyloid, "truncate at one end, thick-walled with internal wall ornamentation", cystidia absent; "hyphal system trimitic", generative hyphae with clamp connections, (Desjardin)
Spore Deposit: brown (Gilbertson)
Habitat / Range
perennial, on hardwoods, causing white rot of living and dead hardwoods, (Gilbertson), single or in small groups "on living or standing dead hardwood trees, stumps, or logs"; in California common, fruiting throughout the year, primarily on bay laurel, (Desjardin), collections in BC on live Aesculus hippocastaneum (Horsechestnut), live Prunus cerasifera var. pissardii (a cultivar of Cherry Plum), and an unidentified log, (Ginns)
Similar Species
Ganoderma applanatum has smaller spores and lacks the yellow cast to the pore surface (Gilbertson), G. applanatum has flesh that is lighter in color and thinner, (Arora). G. applanatum generally has flatter, fan-shaped fruitbodies, has smaller spores (7-8(9) x 4.5-6 microns), and is not restricted to hardwoods, (Siegel(2)). See also SIMILAR section of Ganoderma oregonense.
