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

Summary:
Features include 1) convex to depressed cap that is whitish when young, then variously described as "red- to yellow-brown from the center outward" and "disc dull dark brown progressing through light brown to fawn and to vinaceous fawn to the margin, much darker when wet", with tightly attached conifer debris, 2) cap margin that is incurved and wavy to cleft and lobed, 3) flesh that is brittle, soft, and whitish, 4) decurrent whitish teeth that become red-brownish to gray-brownish, 5) conic to cylindric stem that is has a conspicuous white band near the top but is reddish brown towards the base, 6) odor when dry that is like Maggi and Phellodon, and 7) white spore deposit. |Baird(3) synonymized Bankera (of which this species is the type) with Phellodon, yielding the name Phellodon fuligineoalbus. This was the current name listed in the online Species Fungorum, accessed June 24 2020, but MycoBank, accessed the same date, listed Bankera fuligineoalba as the current name.

Bankera fuligineoalba is known from WA, OR, and also NS, MI, NC, NJ, NY, TN, VA, (Harrison). There is a collection at Pacific Forestry Centre (DAVFP) from BC by S. Gamiet. The accompanying photograph by Kent Brothers shows a collection brought to the Vancouver Mycological Society annual show in BC.

Cap:
6-13cm, convex becoming flat to depressed or when old umbilicate, margin incurved, lobed, wavy; "disc dull dark brown progressing through light brown to fawn and to vinaceous fawn to the margin, much darker when wet"; "unpolished, water-soaked in rainy weather", when dry with adherent debris partly due to binding by surface hyphae, rarely diffracted scaly, (Harrison), up to 13cm across, convex to nearly flat or depressed at disc, "margin inrolled and wavy or lobed"; yellow white, light brown or red hair colored; "tomentose becoming matted, pitted or smooth but with adherent plant debris (needles)", (Baird(3)), 5-10cm, rounded, pulvinate [cushion-shaped] when young, later flat and somewhat depressed in center, margin incurved, wavy to cleft and lobed; cap surface smooth with fine velvety scales on a whitish background when young, then red-brown to yellow-brown from the center outward; "often covered with tightly attached plant remains", (Breitenbach)

Flesh:
brittle to slightly fibrous; tan to vinaceous buff, not zoned; in stem fibrous, pale vinaceous-buff, fawn or tan, (Harrison), "not duplex, azonate", in cap "mostly brittle but with fibrils", in stem brittle; white to yellowish white, (Baird), soft; white, turning slightly pink, (Breitenbach)

Teeth:
0.3-0.5(0.8)cm long, "slightly decurrent, close"; "white becoming pallid, pinkish on young specimens when dried", (Harrison), up to 0.6cm long, "subdecurrent, crowded"; white to yellowish white, (Baird), up to 0.5cm long and 0.05cm wide, "short decurrent on the stem as far as the white zone"; white when young, then light red-brownish to gray-brownish, (Breitenbach)

Stem:
2-4cm x 1-3cm, colored as cap, lightest in color next to the teeth; unpolished, smooth, (Harrison), up to 4cm long and 2cm wide, "central to subeccentric", round in cross-section or cylindric with blunt base; colored like the cap; (Baird), up to 5cm x 1-3cm, conic to cylindric, sometimes off-center, reddish brown towards the base with conspicuous white ring zone at top of stem; finely tomentose, (Breitenbach)

Chemical Reactions:
when dried not reacting to KOH and Melzer''s reagent, (Harrison)

Odor:
when fresh not distinctive, "when dried the odor distinctive (as in most species of Phellodon)", (Harrison), odor "of light fenugreek when dry" (Baird), weak, but when dry intensely like Maggi, (Breitenbach), slight or of fenugreek or curry (Miller)

Taste:
not distinctive when fresh (Harrison), none (Baird), mild (Breitenbach, Miller)

Microscopic:
spores 4-5(6) x 4-5 microns, nearly round, coarsely echinulate; basidia about 40 x 5.5 microns; hyphae of context 4-6 microns wide, thin-walled, interwoven, no clamp connections; cap surface a cutis, (Harrison), spores 4-6 x 4-5 microns, nearly round, colorless, "ornamentation echinulate, spinules not prominent", "hilar appendage oblique"; basidia 4-spored, up to 22-30 x 5-6 microns, "always observed in floret like patterns when squash mounted", clavate, sterigmata up to 4 microns long; lacking clamp connections, (Baird), spores 4.5-5.5 x 2.7-3.5 microns excluding ornamentation, nearly round to oval, with fine spines, colorless, inamyloid; basidia 4-spored, 25-30 x 5-7 microns, without basal clamp connection; cystidia not seen; hyphal system monomitic, hyphae in subhymenium 1.5-4 microns wide, thin-walled; all septa without clamp connections, (Breitenbach), spores 3.5-5.5 x 3.0-3.6 microns, nearly round to short-elliptic, (Miller)

Spore Deposit:
white (Harrison)