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Species Information
Summary: Features include 1) a tough, thin, circular, pale buff cap that has darker radial striations, and that becomes depressed, 2) small pale buff pores, 3) a central to lateral black stem, and 4) microscopic characters including generative hyphae with clamp connections. The online Species Fungorum, accessed September 6, 2017, gave the current name as Cerioporus varius (Pers.) Zmitr. & Kovalenko, but MycoBank, accessed the same day, gave the current name as Polyporus varius (Pers.) Fr. The description is derived from Gilbertson(1), except where noted.
Polyporus varius is found in BC, WA, OR, ID, AB, MB, NT, NB, NS, ON, YT, AK, AZ, CA, CO, IA, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, NH, NM, NY, TN, UT, VT, WV, and WY, (Gilbertson).
Cap: up to 8cm across and 0.4cm thick, dimidiate [roughly semicircular] to circular, sometimes fan-shaped or funnel-shaped, single or several from a branched base; pale buff with radially aligned darker striations, not zoned; bald
Flesh: up to 0.2cm thick, corky, not zoned; buff
Pores: 7-9 per mm, circular to angular, usually decurrent down to black part of stem; pale buff; tube layer colored as flesh
Stem: up to 2cm x 0.7cm, central to lateral; black; minutely tomentose at the base, (Gilbertson), "entirely black or black only at the base" (Ginns(28))
Microscopic: spores 9-12 x 2.5-3 microns, cylindric, slightly curved, smooth, inamyloid, colorless; basidia 4-spored, 18-30 x 7-9 microns, clavate, with basal clamp; cystidia absent, cystidioles 18-23 x 5-7 microns, fusoid; hyphae dimitic, generative hyphae of context 2.5-4 microns wide, difficult to find in mature specimens, thin-walled, with clamp connections, skeletal hyphae of context 4-5 microns wide, thick-walled, nonseptate, binding hyphae of context 1.5-4 microns wide, thick-walled, nonseptate, much branched; hyphae of trama similar
Habitat / Range
annual, on dead wood of hardwoods and conifers, associated with a white rot
Similar Species
Polyporus elegans does not have striate cap surface, (Gilbertson). Polyporus badius has a dark brown or blackish brown cap, usually larger size, and lacks clamp connections, (Gilbertson). Polyporus melanopus has a black velvety stem, and grows on the ground, (Gilbertson). Polyporus ciliatus was the tentative diagnosis without microscopy for a 2018 collection near Mt Ranier WA (Mushroom Observer 316815). DNA sequencing put it just outside the normal ITS variation of Polyporus varius, and the notable features were cap about 6cm across and pale brown, pores about 8-9 per millimeter in white surface, stem lacking any black, and fruiting probably on Alnus (alder) in spring.
