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

Polyporus arcularius Batsch: Fr.
spring polypore
Polyporaceae

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

Introduction to the Macrofungi

© Jim Riley  Email the photographer   (Photo ID #73228)

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Distribution of Polyporus arcularius
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Species Information

Summary:
Features include a straw to dark brown circular fruitbody with a ciliate margin, large radially elongated hexagonal pores that are cream to buff, central stem, and growth on hardwoods. The radially aligned, hexagonal, relatively large pores, centrally depressed cap, central stem, and thin, tough fruitbodies distinguish Polyporus brumalis (see SIMILAR) and this species from other polypores, (Ginns). The online Species Fungorum, accessed September 3, 2018, gives the current name as Lentinus arcularius (Batsch) Zmitr., International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms (Redding) 12(1): 88 (2010). MycoBank, accessed the same day, gives that name as a synonym of Polyporus arcularius Batsch: Fr.

Polyporus arcularius has been found in BC, WA, OR, ID, MB, ON, AL, AZ, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, NE, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, and WV, and it occurs circumglobally, (Gilbertson).
Cap:
up to 2.5cm across and 0.3cm thick, circular; straw-colored to dark brown, not zoned; bald, smooth to rugose [wrinkled]; margin acute, sterile underneath, ciliate [fringed with fine hairs], (Gilbertson), 1-8cm, round, convex becoming depressed or umbilicate; golden brown to dark brown; dry, usually minutely scaly; margin often ciliate, (Arora), sometimes rather indented laterally (Breitenbach)
Flesh:
less than 0.1cm thick, tough; whitish to buff, not zoned, (Gilbertson), thin, tough; white, (Arora)
Pores:
1-2 per mm, hexagonal, radially aligned, with thin walls that become torn; cream to buff; dull, rough; tube layer up to 0.2cm, colored as flesh and continuous with it, (Gilbertson), 1-2 per mm, angular or hexagonal, sometimes decurrent; white or yellowish; tubes shallow, (Arora)
Stem:
up to 3.5cm x 0.4cm, central, colored as cap; bald, (Gilbertson), 2-6cm x 0.2-0.4cm, "usually central or slightly off-center, more or less equal"; dark brown to yellowish brown; "smooth or minutely scaly, the base sometimes hairy", (Arora)
Odor:
mushroomy (Lincoff(1)), weak (Breitenbach), none (Miller)
Taste:
mild (Breitenbach)
Microscopic:
spores 7-9 x 2.5-3 microns, cylindric, straight or slightly curved, smooth, inamyloid, colorless; basidia 4-spored, 25-35 x 5-6 microns, clavate, with basal clamp; cystidia none; hyphal system dimitic, generative hyphae in context 2.5-5 microns wide, colorless in KOH, "thin-walled, often branched, with abundant clamps", skeletal hyphae in context 2-11 microns wide, thick-walled, nonseptate, with occasional branching; hyphae of cap surface 1-1.5 microns wide, thin-walled, with clamp connections; hyphae of trama similar, (Gilbertson), spores 7-11 x 2-3 microns, cylindric, smooth, (Arora)
Spore Deposit:
white (Arora)

Habitat / Range

annual, single on dead hardwood, also on juniper and Douglas-fir decking, associated with a white rot of dead hardwoods, rarely on conifer wood, (Gilbertson), single or in small groups on dead hardwoods (Arora), on "dead branches and sticks in woodland or on the ground growing from buried wood", (Lincoff(1)), fruiting in summer and fall (Miller)

Taxonomic and Nomenclatural Links

Additional Range and Status Information Links

Edibility

too small and tough (Arora)

Additional Photo Sources

Related Databases

Species References

Gilbertson(1), Arora(1)*, Lincoff(2)*, Lincoff(1)*, Miller(14)*, Schalkwijk-Barendsen(1)*, Breitenbach(2)*, Ginns(28)*, Marrone(1)*

References for the fungi

General References