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Species Information
Summary: features include tough thin circular tan to chestnut brown cap that becomes depressed, small pale buff pores, central to lateral stem that is brown at top and black at base, and microscopic characters including generative hyphae with clamp connections; the species has been regarded as a synonym of Polyporus varius, (MycoBank, accessed September 6, 2017, has Polyporus elegans (Bull.) Trog as a synonym of Polyporus varius (Pers.:Fr.)) but the online Species Fungorum, accessed September 6, 2017 synonymizes Polyporus elegans Bull. and Polyporus elegans Fr. with Cerioporus leptocephalus (Jacq.) Zmitr. Ginns(28) uses the name Polyporus leptocephalus (Jacq.) Fr.
Polyporus elegans has been found in BC, WA, OR, ID, AB, MB, NS, ON, PQ, YT, AK, AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, IA, KY, MA, ME, MI, MN, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TN, UT, VA, VT, WI, WV, and WY, (Gilbertson).
Cap: 1-4(9)cm across and 1cm thick (usually 0.2-0.3cm thick), circular to kidney-shaped or fan-shaped; tan to chestnut brown, not zoned; bald, (Gilbertson), 1.5-7cm, round to kidney-shaped, convex becoming depressed or umbilicate; pale tan to ocher, often weathering to white; smooth or finely striate; margin often wavy or lobed, (Arora)
Flesh: up to 0.7cm thick, corky, not zoned; pale buff, (Gilbertson), thin, tough when fresh, rigid when dry; white to pale cinnamon, (Arora)
Pores: 5-7 per mm, circular to angular; pale buff; tube layer up to 0.2cm thick, colored as flesh or slightly darker, (Gilbertson), 4-6 per mm, usually decurrent; white when fresh, often grayish or brownish when old; tube layer thin, (Arora)
Stem: up to 7cm x 0.5cm, central or lateral; base black, upper part colored as cap, bald, (Gilbertson), 0.5-5cm x 0.2-0.6(1)cm, central to lateral, tough, "more or less equal or swollen at base"; pallid or tan in upper part, soon black in lower part, (Arora), "entirely black or black only at the base" (Ginns)
Microscopic: spores 7.5-10 x 2.5-3 microns, cylindric, slightly curved, smooth, inamyloid, colorless; basidia 4-spored, 15-20 x 6-7 microns, broadly clavate, with basal clamp; cystidia none; hyphae dimitic, generative hyphae of context 2.5-4 microns wide, thin-walled, with clamp connections, binding hyphae of context 2.5-5 microns, thick-walled, nonseptate, much branched; hyphae of trama similar, (Gilbertson), spores 6.5-10 x 2.5-4 microns, cylindric, smooth, (Arora)
Spore Deposit: white (Arora)
Habitat / Range
annual, usually single, on dead hardwoods, occasionally on conifers, associated with white rot of dead hardwoods, (Gilbertson), single or several together "on decaying hardwood sticks, branches and debris (only rarely on conifers)", (Arora)
Similar Species
Polyporus badius is usually larger, has a darker cap and most often an entirely black stem, and often grows on logs and stumps whereas P. elegans is more common on branches and sticks, (Arora). P. badius has a dark brown or blackish brown cap, it is usually larger, and it lacks clamp connections, (Gilbertson). Polyporus varius has a radially streaked cap and is intermediate in color between P. elegans and P. badius, (Arora). P. varius has a radially streaked cap (Gilbertson). Polyporus melanopus has "a velvety stem and velvety-scurfy cap, at least when young" and "grows from the ground or from buried wood", (Arora). P. melanopus is generally larger, has a black velvety stem, and grows on the ground, (Gilbertson).
