Details about map content are available here Click on the map dots to view record details.
Species Information
Summary: Distinctive field characters include the smoky gray to black color of the pore surface, the contrast between the gray to black tube layer and the white flesh but without a dark line at the base of the tube layer, and overlapping shelf-like, thin, leathery caps that are cream to butterscotch and tomentose to somewhat hairy, but not distinctly zoned. At least in BC it is more common than B. fumosa (Ginns(28)).
Bjerkandera adusta has been found in BC, WA, OR, ID, AB, MB, NF, NS, NWT, ON, PQ, SK, YT, AK, AR, AZ, AL, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WI, WV, WY, Europe, and Asia - circumglobal in the northern hemisphere, (Gilbertson).
Cap: forming a cap without a stem, or flat on wood and bent back (up to 3cm) to form a cap, or occasionally flat under logs, often in shingled clusters, consistency tough; upper cap surface cream to buff; cap tomentose or strigose to bald when old, faintly zoned or not zoned, (Gilbertson), 2-4cm long, extending outward 1-2cm, 0.1-0.6cm thick, overlapping groups may extend for 20cm, wavy; "upper surface gray-brown with a white margin when young, becoming darker and blackening at the margin with age"; suede-like, leathery drying hard, (Phillips), white or tan to smoky gray, drying black along margin, (Lincoff), 2-6cm across, on vertical surfaces semicircular, conchate, or fan-shaped, usually imbricate [shingled], also growing flat on undersurfaces, and rounded to rosette-like on upper surfaces; ocherish to gray-brown or blackish, marginal zone whitish when young but blackish when old; tomentose, +/- concentrically zoned, becoming bald when old, (Breitenbach), shelf-like with overlapping caps projecting outward from the substrate, varying to flat with pore surface outward; cream to butterscotch, not distinctly zoned; tomentose to somewhat hairy, (Trudell)
Flesh: "context pale buff, azonate with distinct thin upper layer of tomentum up to 6 mm thick", (Gilbertson), pale buff with a thin layer of matted hair up to 0.6cm thick, (Phillips), white, usually separated from tubes by a thin dark line (Lincoff, but note SIMILAR section), thin, leathery, tough, whitish, set off sharply from gray black tube layer
Pores: 6-7 per mm, angular, regular; gray to black; dissepiments thin, entire; tube layer up to 0.1cm thick, smoky gray, distinct from flesh, (Gilbertson), 5-7 per mm, subcircular [nearly circular]; smoke gray, darkening when old; tubes 0.1-0.2cm deep, gray, (Phillips), pores almost circular becoming angular; grayish, bruising or aging black, (Lincoff), 4-6 per mm, irregularly rounded, "light gray at first, then dark gray to blackish, whitish toward the margin, blackening when handled"; tube layer 0.1-0.2cm thick, (Breitenbach), small, angular; dark smoky gray or blackish; tubes smoke gray, (Trudell)
Microscopic: spores 5-6 x 2.5-3.5 microns, short-cylindric, smooth, inamyloid, colorless; basidia 4-spored, clavate to napiform (turnip-shaped), 22-25 x 5-6 microns, with basal clamp; cystidia absent, dark brownish vascular hyphae sometimes present in subhymenium and in hymenial layer; hyphal system monomitic: contextual hyphae 3-5 microns wide, thin to moderately thick-walled, with abundant clamp connections, with occasional branching, "tramal hyphae similar but densely compacted and agglutinated", (Gilbertson), spores 4.5-5.5 x 2-3 microns, elliptic, smooth, inamyloid, colorless, (Breitenbach)
Spore Deposit: white (Phillips)
Habitat / Range
annual, causing a white rot of hardwood logs and slash and occasionally on conifers: it is "particularly common in aspen and is always a conspicuous fungus in older aspen stands", (Gilbertson), on dead hardwood: on stumps, standing trunks, and damaged places on living trees, (Breitenbach), spring to fall (Bacon), all year (Buczacki)
Similar Species
Bjerkandera fumosa has a buff to pale smoky gray pore surface (as opposed to dark smoky gray), is thicker and wider, has a thick context with a dark layer at the base of the tubes (as opposed to a thin context that may contrast between dark tubes and light context but lacks such a line), and has broader spores, (Gilbertson). B. fumosa is larger with thicker flesh and an anise odor, (Lincoff).
