E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

Summary:
Features include 1) semicircular, hoof-shaped, cushion-shaped or irregular yellow brown to dark brown caps that are usually coarse and uneven with warts and pits, 2) a cinnamon to dark brown pore surface, 3) hard, rusty brown to dark brown flesh that may have a strong scent of anise, and 4) growth on coniferous wood or timber. The description is derived from Gilbertson(1) except where indicated.

Gloeophyllum odoratum has been reported from BC, WA, OR, ID, AZ, CO, MT, and NM, according to Gilbertson(1) who suggest that some records of the species could represent Gloeophyllum protractum: referring to G. odoratum, they comment "Probably rare and restricted to the coniferous forests in the Rocky Mountains. The only report of this anise-scented taxon from North America is that of Neuman (1914) from Wisconsin, and most other reports of the species on the continent are probably referring to G. protractum". J. Ginns says "Most reports of G. odoratum before 1986 may have been misidentified specimens of G. protractum" (Ginns(28) with Latin names italicized). Apparently the anise scent characteristic of G. odoratum in Europe has not generally been present where the species has been recorded in North America. Kout(3) add [with Latin names italicized] "We regard the distribution maps of G. odoratum as unreliable because G. protractum has probably been misidentified as G. odoratum in the U.S.A. We were not able to find either species when we visited the putative areas of G. odoratum and G. abietinum occurrence in the U.S.A.".

Cap:
up to 15cm broad and long, with a cap, broadly and strongly attached, semicircular to hoof-shaped or irregular with nodulose caps, especially on vertical substrates, or as pulvinate [cushion-shaped] fruitbodies on top of stumps and then with pores only along a partly raised margin or on the parts extending beyond the edges of the stump, hard and corky, single, the margin usually rounded; upper surface ochraceous to light brown in young parts, later dark brown to almost black; usually with a few strongly grooved zones, coarse and uneven with small warts and pits, at first adpressed tomentose to slightly hispid (with stiff erect hairs), becoming bald when old

Flesh:
fibrous, hard; at first rusty brown, later dark brown

Pores:
1-2 per mm, "regular and angular, more rarely somewhat split and slightly sinuous", usually with a rather broad sterile margin; cinnamon to dark brown; tube layer up to 1.5cm thick, ochraceous and lighter than both the flesh and the pore surface, "often with a few weak, darker, horizontal zones"

Chemical Reactions:
flesh black when touched with KOH

Odor:
with a strong scent of anise when fresh, (Gilbertson), strong of anise or vanilla tending to disappear when old, the odor also present in wood invaded by the hyphae (Lincoff)

Microscopic:
spores 7.5-10.5(11) x 3-4.5 microns, cylindric, smooth, inamyloid, colorless, thin-walled; basidia 4-spored, 18-35 x 5-8 microns, clavate; cystidia difficult to observe, usually collapsed in dried specimens, 20-30 x 3.6 microns, thin-walled, tapering and subacute; hyphal system di-trimitic: generative hyphae 2.5-4 microns wide, thin-walled, with clamp connections, skeletal hyphae dominating in fruitbody and tomentum, 3-5 microns wide, light yellowish brown, thick-walled, binding hyphae in flesh very rare and found in only a few collections, mostly close to base, 1.5-3 microns wide, solid