E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

Phanerochaete chrysosporium Burds.
no common name
Phanerochaetaceae

Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.

Introduction to the Macrofungi
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Distribution of Phanerochaete chrysosporium
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Species Information

Summary:
Features include 1) resupinate growth on wood, 2) a fruitbody that is cream to ochraceous, smooth, with the margin rather abrupt or up to 0.2cm wide, powdery, white, and non-rhizomorphic, and with the subiculum cottony and white, 3) spores that are cylindric to narrowly elliptic, smooth, inamyloid, and colorless, 4) cystidia that are protruding, arising at various levels of the subhymenium and subiculum, cylindric, obtuse at the apex, and thin-walled or with slight wall thickening, 5) a monomitic hyphal system, the hyphae lacking clamp connections, 6) sometimes with oval to spherical chlamydospore-like thick-walled cells near the substrate. Phanerochaete chrysosporium associated with an imperfect state Chrysosporium which is commonly isolated from wood chip piles, (Burdsall(3)). It causes substantial wood loss in chip piles and attempts have been made to harness its white rotting ability in a biomechanical pulping procedure, (Burdsall(5)). The anamorph is given as Sporotrichum pulverulentum Novobr. citing Burdsall 1981 in Ginns(5).

Phanerochaete chrysosporium has been found in BC, NB, AZ, CA, GA, IL, MD, ME, MS, NY, and WI, (Ginns).
Fruiting body:
up to 0.025cm thick, broadly effused, indeterminate, membranous, "loosely attached or separable in small pieces"; ''yellowish white'' to ''light brown''; moist when fresh, "smooth, continuous, not cracking"; margin rather abrupt or up to 0.2cm wide, "sterile, very thin, powdery or finely granular, irregular in outline, white, non-rhizomorphic"; subiculum byssoid [cottony], white, (Burdsall(3)), cream to ochraceous (Julich)
Microscopic:
SPORES (5.5)6-7.5(9) x 3-4 microns, depressed ovoid, smooth, inamyloid, colorless, thin-walled; BASIDIA 4-spored, 22-35 x 5-6 microns, clavate, colorless, thin-walled, septate at base but lacking clamp connection; CYSTIDIA 60-150 (250) x 6.5-9 microns, projecting up to 70 microns, "arising at various levels of the subhymenium and subiculum", cylindric, obtuse at apex, thin-walled or with slight wall thickening, colorless, smooth, septate only at base and lacking clamp connections; HYPHAE monomitic; SUBHYMENIUM up to 75 microns thick, a compact textura intricata-porrecta, hyphae 2.5-4 microns wide, somewhat agglutinated, walls thin or slightly thickened; SUBICULUM a textura intricata, hyphae (3.5)4.5-6(7) microns wide, branched at nearly right angles, colorless, thin-walled or with walls up to 1 micron thick, lacking clamp connections, smooth near substrate to heavily encrusted with large colorless crystals near subhymenium, "sometimes with oval to spherical chlamydospore-like thick walled cells near substrate", (Burdsall(3)), SPORES elliptic, adaxially flattened, acyanophilic, CYSTIDIA arising at various levels in the thickened subhymenium, (Burdsall(5)), SPORES 6-9 x 3-4 microns, cylindric to narrowly elliptic; BASIDIA 20-35 x 6-8 microns; HYPHAE 2.5-7 microns wide, thin-walled to somewhat thick-walled, (Julich)

Habitat / Range

fallen branches; piles of wood chips; causing a white rot; Abies balsamea (Balsam Fir), Fagus grandifolia (American Beech), Heteromeles arbutifolia (Christmasberry), Liriodendron tulipifera (Tuliptree), Picea sp. (spruce), Pinus contorta (Lodgepole Pine), Pinus resinosa (Red Pine), Platanus wrightii (Arizona Sycamore), Populus fremontii (Fremont Cottonwood), Sequoia sempervirens (Redwood), Ulmus americana (American Elm), (Ginns)

Synonyms and Alternate Names

Mollisia fusca Karst.
Tapesia cinerella Rehm

Taxonomic and Nomenclatural Links

Additional Range and Status Information Links

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Related Databases

Species References

Burdsall(3) (colors in single quotation marks from Kornerup(1), 1967 edition), Julich(5), Burdsall(5), Ginns(5), Eriksson(5)

References for the fungi

General References