Details about map content are available here Click on the map dots to view record details.
Species Information
Summary: Features include 1) a more or less circular cap that is pale cinnamon to deep brown, tough, thin, velvety tomentose, and zoned, 2) rusty brown flesh that stains black with KOH, 3) brown pores that are often slightly decurrent on the stem, 4) central dark brown velvety stem, and 5) growth on the ground in coniferous forests. It is common in the Pacific Northwest. According to Siegel(2) more than one Californian species go by the name Coltricia perennis.
It is found in BC, WA, OR, ID, NS, ON, PQ, AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, FL, GA, IA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OH, PA, TN, VA, VT, WI, (Gilbertson).
Cap: with cap and stem, up to 10cm wide, 0.2-0.5cm thick at center, cap more or less circular, often confluent with nearby specimens when growing in groups, tough and leathery when fresh, brittle and hard when dry, "margin thin and wavy, bent down in dry specimens"; pale cinnamon to deep brown becoming grayish when old; velvety tomentose, usually densely zoned, often with slightly different tomentum from zone to zone, (Gilbertson), 2-8cm, flattened or funnel-shaped, thin; "finely velvety, then zoned and bald, rust-colored and brown", (Lincoff), funnel-shaped, cap edge may be fused with other caps; "concentric zones of grayish brown, golden to cinnamon-brown, or darker brown, and usually a pale irregular edge"; velvety, (Trudell)
Flesh: 0.1-0.2cm thick, "rusty brown and dense, paler toward cap", (Gilbertson), thin, leathery; cinnamon-colored, (Lincoff)
Pores: 2-4 per mm, angular, thin-walled, often slightly decurrent on stem, pores when old sometimes slightly incised or toothed; golden brown, cinnamon to dark brown when old; tube layer up to 0.3cm thick, cinnamon to rusty brown, (Gilbertson), quite broad, roundish or polygonal, slightly decurrent; "initially whitish then cinnamon-brown, velvety"; tubes cinnamon colored, (Lincoff), yellowish white to brownish, bruising brown when handled, (Trudell)
Stem: not described by Gilbertson(1), but Phillips, who follows their description, gives it as 1.5-3.5cm x 0.2-1cm, central, dark brown, (Phillips), 1-3cm x 0.5cm, cylindric; reddish-brown; velvety, (Lincoff), stem 2-7cm x 0.1-1.0cm (Ginns(28)), stem 1.5-7cm x 0.1-1.0cm (Overholts(1))
Chemical Reactions: flesh blackens with KOH (Lincoff)
Odor: mushroomy (Lincoff), without special odor (Breitenbach)
Taste: astringent (Lincoff), mild, (Breitenbach)
Microscopic: spores 6-9(10) x 3.5-5(5.5) microns, elliptic to cylindric-elliptic, smooth, slightly dextrinoid, pale yellowish brown; basidia 4-spored, 15-25 x 5-7 microns, clavate, simple-septate at base; setae none; hyphal system "monomitic with two types of generative hyphae, both with simple septa, a) predominantly straight and sparingly branched, rusty brown, 4-8 microns wide, in most sections with numerous septa, b) twisted, pale yellowish and narrow wide and with few septa, these hyphae are especially common in the context and the central part of the stem, hyphae on pileus surface thick-walled, erect, with distinctive dichotomous branching, pale yellowish brown, 3-8 microns in diam.", (Gilbertson), spores 5-10 x 3.5-6 microns, elliptic, smooth, yellow to ochreous, (Lincoff)
Spore Deposit: pale yellowish brown (Phillips)
Habitat / Range
annual, on ground "in coniferous forests, often on exposed soil like paths, roadsides, clearings, in vicinity of fireplaces, etc.", (Gilbertson), single to gregarious, "in hardwood and coniferous forests, on soil, among needle litter and mosses, commonly on embankments of sandy soil", (Breitenbach), fruiting in summer and fall (Miller), on the ground or on woody debris, "most characteristic of disturbed areas such as trail edges and roadsides in coniferous forests", (Trudell), fall to early winter (Bacon), all year (Buczacki)
Similar Species
Coltricia cinnamomea is generally in hardwood forests, the cap is rarely over 4cm across, the cap surface is shiny, the flesh is up to 0.1cm thick, the stem is up to 0.6cm wide, the spores are 4.5-7.0 microns wide, and antler-like hyphal tips on the cap surface are lacking, whereas C. perennis is typically in coniferous forests, the cap is generally 3-10cm across, the cap surface is dull, the flesh is 0.1-0.3cm thick, the stem is generally 1.0cm wide, the spores are 3.5-5.5 microns wide, and antler-like hyphal tips on the cap surface are present, (Ginns(28)). C. cinnamomea has smaller fruitbodies; has a velvety, shiny to glossy brown to deep reddish brown cap with distinct to indistinct concentric zones; favors hardwood forests, and has wider spores, (Gilbertson). C. cinnamomea is 1-5cm across; has a silky rather than strongly zoned velvety surface; usually has a thinner stem; and has yellow-brown to brown or reddish brown pores that are typically not decurrent, (Arora). Coltricia montagnei has maze-like pores or concentrically arranged plates, (Arora). Polyporus and other stemmed polypores in general do not have rusty brown flesh (Arora). Onnia tomentosa has nonzoned cap, usually more robust fruitbody, and microscopically has setae in the hymenium, (Breitenbach). Phellodon tomentosus is usually smaller but can look similar from the top - it has teeth rather than pores on the underside.
