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

Summary:
Mensularia radiata forms woody semicircular brackets with thin margins, on hardwoods, the upper surface zoned yellow brown to zoned red brown, felty then smooth and radially wrinkled, the pores pale yellowish brown becoming darker. Microscopic characters include monomitic hyphae and infrequent setae that are straight or hooked. It is common in eastern North America but rare in western North America, (Gilbertson).

Mensularia radiata has been found in BC, WA, OR, ID, ON, PQ, NB, NS, AK, CT, IL, MA, ME, MI, MO, MT, NC, NH, NJ, NY, PA, TN, VA, VT, and WI, (Gilbertson). It is known in BC from one collection (Ginns). It also occurs in Europe, Asia, and Australia, (Breitenbach).

Cap:
up to 5cm across, 3cm wide, and 1.5cm thick, woody with a thin margin; "upper surface yellowy brown, then rusty becoming blackish with age, with concentric bands of color; finely felty, then smooth and radially wrinkled", (Phillips), up to 3cm x 5cm x 1.5cm, bracket-like or bent outward from flat pore surface, single or imbricate [shingled], semicircular, annual; upper surface yellowish brown to reddish brown, blackening when old; finely tomentose becoming bald, concentrically zoned, (Gilbertson), 3-8cm along wood, projecting 1.5-5cm, up to 2cm thick; rust-brown, then dark brown to black-brown; finely tomentose becoming bald when old, "tuberculate, undulating, radially wrinkled, sometimes concentrically zoned"; inflated yellowish margin when young, (Breitenbach)

Flesh:
up to 1cm thick; yellowish brown to reddish brown; lustrous, (Phillips), up to 1cm thick, yellowish brown to reddish brown; lustrous, faintly zonate, (Gilbertson), up to 0.5cm thick, "soft, succulent, brittle when dry"; rust-brown, (Breitenbach)

Pores:
2-5 per mm, angular, with hairy walls that become thin and torn; pale yellowish brown becoming darker brown when old, glancing silvery in the light; tubes up to 0.7cm long, darker brown, whitish inside, (Phillips), 2-5 per mm, angular, with tomentose walls that become thin and torn; pale yellowish brown becoming darker brown, tubes up to 0.7cm long, darker brown than flesh, tubes often whitish inside, (Gilbertson), 2-4 per mm, round-angular to slit, "whitish when young, then light brown to gray-brown, with a yellow-grayish iridescence"; tube layer up to 1cm thick, (Breitenbach)

Stem:
no stem but with a stem-like attachment (Phillips)

Odor:
faint and sweet (Phillips)

Taste:
bitter (Phillips)

Microscopic:
spores 5-6.5 x 3-4.5 microns, narrowly elliptic to oval, smooth, individually pale yellowish in Melzer''s but appearing dextrinoid in mass, colorless or faintly yellowish; basidia 4-spored, 10-11 x 5-6 microns, broadly ellipsoid, simple-septate at base; hymenial setae infrequent but always present, usually not projecting or projecting only slightly beyond basidia, 14-35(50) x 7-12 microns, "mostly ventricose, often with a much swollen base, rarely subulate, thick-walled, straight or frequently hooked at the tip"; context hyphae 3-7 microns wide, pale yellowish in KOH, thin-walled to firm-walled, simple-septate, with rare branching, trama hyphae similar, 2.5-4 microns wide, (Gilbertson), spores 4.5-5.5 x 3.5-4.5 microns, broadly elliptic, smooth, inamyloid, slightly yellowish, (Breitenbach)

Spore Deposit:
yellowish (Phillips)