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Species Information
Summary: Bjerkandera fumosa forms tough often overlapping semicircular caps on hardwood, with upper surface buff without zones, pore surface buff to smoky gray, and pale smoky gray tubes separated from the buff flesh by a dark line. At least in BC it is less common than B. adusta. The description is derived from Gilbertson(1) unless otherwise noted.
Bjerkandera fumosa has been found in BC, WA, OR, ID, MB, ON, PE, PQ, AR, CA, DE, FL, IA, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TN, TX, VT, WI, and WV, (Gilbertson), and Europe and Asia, (Breitenbach).
Cap: forming caps without stem, or bent back to form caps, semicircular, often laterally fused, up to 5cm x 10cm x 2cm; upper surface buff, margin the same color; tomentose to bald, azonate, smooth, (Gilbertson), 10-15cm along wood and projecting up to 8cm outward, 2-3cm thick where attached, bracket-like, irregularly semicircular, fan-shaped; hygrophanous, ocher to coffee brown (moist), sometimes concentrically zoned; even, smooth, slightly undulating, finely velvety and dull; margin sharp, slightly undulating-crenate [wavy-scalloped], (Breitenbach)
Flesh: up to 1.5cm thick, soft-fibrous; buff, not zoned, (Gilbertson), spongy-tough; brown, with dark brown line separating it from tube layer, (Breitenbach)
Pores: 2-5 per mm, circular to angular, surface with isolated cup-like depressions near margin; walls thick, entire, becoming thin; tube layer paler smoky gray, separated from context by a thin dark layer, (Gilbertson), 2-4 per mm, rounded to angular; whitish to cream, "browning slightly when handled"; tube layer up to 0.4cm thick, (Breitenbach)
Odor: anise-like when fresh (Lincoff)
Taste: bitter, unpleasant, (Buczacki)
Microscopic: spores 5-5.5 x 2-3.5 microns, short-cylindric, smooth, inamyloid, colorless; basidia 4-spored, 12-14 x 4-5 microns, clavate, with basal clamp; cystidia absent; hyphal system monomitic, context hyphae 3-7 microns wide, colorless in KOH, thin-walled to moderately thick-walled, often branched, with abundant clamp connections; tramal hyphae 2.5-3.5 microns wide, colorless in KOH, thin-walled, often branched, with abundant clamp connections, (Gilbertson), spores 5-6.5 x 2.5-3.5 microns, elliptic, smooth, inamyloid, colorless, (Breitenbach)
Spore Deposit: white (Buczacki)
Habitat / Range
annual, on dead hardwood, causes white rot of sapwood logs and stumps, (Gilbertson), on dead hardwood or damaged living hardwood trees, (Breitenbach), all year (Buczacki)
Similar Species
Bjerkandera adusta is thinner and less wide, with a dark smoky gray pore surface, the thin buff context lacking a dark layer at base of the smoky gray tube layer [although Lincoff mentions such a layer, and color of tubes would still contrast with flesh], and has narrower spores, (Gilbertson)
