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Species Information
Summary: Features include 1) brackets that are broadly attached along fallen coniferous logs, 2) a rather sharp margin, 3) an upper surface that is ochraceous to brown, with concentric grooved bands, 4) tough leathery brown flesh, and 5) yellowish brown pores that are angular to weakly elongated radially. Kout(3) synonymize this species with Gloeophyllum mexicanum (Mont.) Ryvarden 1982. The description is derived from Gilbertson(1) except where indicated.
Gloeophyllum protractum has been found in BC, WA, OR, ID, AB, MB, NWT, NB, NF, NS, ON, AK, AZ, CA, CO, DE, FL, ME, MI, MN, MT, NH, NJ, NM, NY, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WI, WV, and WY, and it is circumpolar "through USSR and into Europe where it is absent from the western part", (Gilbertson).
Cap: with cap but without stem, growing elongated along fallen logs, up to 4cm wide and 10cm long, 0.5-1.5cm thick at base, "often slightly triquetrous in section", tough and leathery, margin rather sharp; upper surface at first ochraceous to brown, when old grayish to black in old parts; concentrically zonate in more or less distinct grooved bands, bald and semiglossy when young, when old often radially striate, slightly scrupose (rough with small projecting pointed fascicles of hyphae) and uneven with a few cracks near the base
Flesh: up to 1cm thick, tough and leathery; fulvous to deep brown, in old specimens with a distinct black cuticle on top
Pores: 1-2 per mm, up to 0.3cm long and 0.05-0.01cm wide, entire and angular to weakly elongated radially, "ochraceous when actively growing and then darker when touched, later yellowish brown to fulvous"; tube layer up to 1cm thick, "mostly with a light pruina covering walls"
Odor: no scent of anise when fresh
Microscopic: spores 8.5-11(12) x 3-4(4.5) microns, cylindric, smooth, inamyloid, colorless, thin-walled, often difficult to see in dried specimens; basidia 4-spored, 25-42 x 7-8 microns, with basal clamp; cystidia or cystidioles scattered, "tapered to rounded, up to 35 microns long, in a few cases elongated to an almost whiplike tip, then up to 55 microns long, 4-8 microns in diam, slightly thick-walled and light yellowish when viewed in KOH", in some cases difficult to distinguish from immature basidia; hyphal system trimitic: generative hyphae 2-4 microns wide, thin-walled to slightly thick-walled, "with distinct clamps, often with oildrops in the protoplasm", skeletal hyphae 3.5-5.5 microns wide, golden to light rusty brown, thick-walled to solid, binding hyphae 1.5-3 microns wide, light yellowish, solid, moderately branched, rather rare mainly in old parts of flesh
Habitat / Range
"annual (perennial?)", on coniferous wood especially Pinus (pine), mostly on decorticated wood in open habitats, rarely on hardwoods like Populus and Quercus (oak), causes a brown rot
Similar Species
Gloeophyllum trabeum is generally smaller, has a softer and more bald upper surface, and normally has more gills in the spore-bearing surface, where the pore walls in general are thinner and the pores smaller (3-4 per mm), (Gilbertson). Gloeophyllum protractum is separated from Gloeophyllum odoratum by the former''s lack of anise odor, thinner fruitbodies, and normally smoother and more bald cap surface, (Gilbertson).
