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Species Information
Summary: Also included in Polypore category. Daedaleopsis confragosa, as a member of Polyporaceae, is not normally grouped with gilled mushrooms, but the pores are often gill-like in appearance. Features include 1) shelf-like or sometimes bracket-like fruitbodies that are leathery or corky when fresh, rigid when dry, 2) a relatively thin, fan-shaped, brown to grayish cap with a bald, often zoned surface. 3) pores that are usually elongated and maze-like with relatively thin walls, but sometimes circular or forming gill-like or tooth-like structures, the color whitish to tan or brown, sometimes bruising pinkish or reddish, 4) growth on hardwoods that is usually annual, but may persist for several years, and 5) a white spore deposit. It is more common in the east than the west in North America.
Daedaleopsis confragosa has been found in BC, WA, AB, MB, NS, ON, QC, AL, AR, AZ, CT, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OH, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, VT, WI, WV, (Gilbertson). In addition, the University of Washington has a collection from AK. It also occurs in Europe and Asia, (Breitenbach).
Cap: (3)5-15(22)cm wide, shelf-like or sometimes bracket-like, fan-shaped to semicircular, broadly convex to flat, leathery or corky, drying rigid, margin thin, acute (sharp); reddish-brown to brown to grayish, sometimes blackish when old; "dry, smooth or slightly hairy, usually zoned or ridged concentrically, often radially wrinkled or bumpy in age", (Arora), up to 12cm wide, shelf-like semicircular without stem or bending into a cap from a part of the fruitbody that is flat on wood with pore surface exposed, tough-corky, annual; upper surface buff to light brown; usually zoned and shallowly grooved, surface matted-strigose to bald, (Gilbertson)
Flesh: tough; white to pinkish or brownish, (Arora), up to 2cm thick, firm-corky; pale buff to brown, not zoned, (Gilbertson)
Gills: pores 0.5-1.5mm wide, "usually elongated and mazelike with relatively thin walls, but sometimes circular and at other times forming gills or becoming toothlike in age; white to tan or brown, sometimes bruising pinkish or reddish"; tube layer up to 1.5cm thick, (Arora), pores variable: circular or radially elongated and up to 1mm wide, maze-like, or with walls splitting to form a radially gill-like structure; tube layer up to 1cm thick, colored as flesh and continuous with it, (Gilbertson)
Stem: absent
Odor: mild (Breitenbach)
Taste: mild to somewhat bitter (Breitenbach)
Microscopic spores: spores 7-11 x 2-3 microns, cylindric, smooth, (Arora), spores 9-11 x 2-2.5 microns, cylindric, slightly curved, smooth, inamyloid, colorless; basidia 4-spored, 30-45 x 4-5 microns, narrowly clavate, with basal clamp; cystidia none, branching dendrohyphidia 2-3 microns wide, thin-walled, not incrusted; hyphal system trimitic: context generative hyphae 2-6 microns wide, thin-walled, nodose-septate, with occasional branching, context skeletal hyphae 4-7 microns wide, thick-walled, nonseptate, with rare branching, context binding hyphae 2-4.5 microns wide, thick-walled, nonseptate, much-branched, trama hyphae similar, (Gilbertson), spores 6.5-8 x (1.5)2-2.5 microns, cylindric, slightly curved, smooth, inamyloid, some with drops, (Breitenbach)
Spore deposit: white (Arora)
Habitat / Range
usually annual, single or in groups on dead hardwoods or from wounds in living trees, especially willow, but also birch and other hardwoods and very rarely on conifers, (Arora), on dead wood of hardwoods, rarely conifers, causes white rot, (Gilbertson), spores produced in fall (Bacon)
Similar Species
Daedalea quercina is rare in western North America, with thicker, often deeper tube walls that are less variable in form, and usually perennial growth, (Arora). Lenzites betulina has a spore-bearing surface that has a gilled appearance, often branching toward the margin or forming elongated pockets. Gloeophyllum sepiarium has a brown spore-bearing surface that is gill-like or poroid or tooth-like or with elongated pores. The upper surface is rusty brown to dark brown or maroon brown, often with yellow or orangish zones. It grows mostly on conifers including structural timber. Cerrena unicolor has a hirsute cap, a finer pore structure with 2-4 pores per mm, and a black line in the flesh. Trichaptum laricinum has thin but rigid hairy caps that are tan to gray, and a purplish gill surface.
