Summary: {See also Amylocystis lapponica, Leptoporus mollis, Postia fragilis Table.} Features include growth on conifers in shelf-like form or bent outward to form a cap, the upper surface pale pink to pale purple becoming purplish brown, the pores white to pink-tinted or pale purple becoming purplish brown, soft consistency, growth on conifers, and microscopic characters.
Chemical Reactions: turns dark red in KOH (Beug)
Odor: non-specific, weak, (Breitenbach)
Taste: mild (Breitenbach)
Microscopic: spores 5-6 x 1.5-2 microns, allantoid [curved sausage-shaped], smooth, inamyloid, colorless; basidia 4-spored, 16-18 x 4-5 microns, clavate, simple septate at base; cystidia none; hyphal system monomitic: context hyphae 2.5-5 microns wide, thin-walled to thick-walled, simple-septate, with rare to frequent branching, tramal hyphae similar, (Gilbertson), spores 5.5-7.5 x 1.5-2.3 microns, allantoid [curved sausage-shaped], smooth, inamyloid, colorless, some with 2 droplets, (Breitenbach)
Spore Deposit: white (Buczacki)
Notes: Leptoporus mollis has been found in BC, WA, OR, ID, NB, NS, PQ, AR, AL, AZ, CA, CO, FL, LA, MI, MT, NH, NM, NY, TX, WY, Europe, and Asia, (Gilbertson).
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
Amylocystis lapponica has cylindric spores 8-11 x 2.5-3.5 microns, clamp connections, and amyloid metuloids, whereas Leptoporus mollis has allantoid spores 5-6 x 1.5-2 microns, no clamp connections, and no cystidia, and Postia fragilis has allantoid spores 4-5 x 1-1.5 microns, clamp connections, and no cystidia, (Ginns(25)). Postia fragilis has whitish fruitbodies that turn red or brown only after contact or bruising, (Breitenbach). Sarcoporia polyspora also stains reddish brown, has elliptic to cylindric spores 5-7 x 2.5-4.0 microns, has clamp connections, and lacks cystidia (Ginns(28)).
Habitat
annual, on dead wood of conifers, causing a brown cubical rot, (Gilbertson), single, laterally growing together, or imbricate [shingled] on dead, standing, or fallen Picea [spruce] and Pinus [pine], (Breitenbach for Europe), summer to fall (Buczacki)