Polyporus melanopus Fr.
no common name
Polyporaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
no common name
Polyporaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
Species Information
Summary:
Features include 1) a tough, thin, circular, reddish brown to blackish brown cap that becomes depressed, 2) small whitish pores, 3) a central to lateral stem that is brownish black, and velvety in upper part, 4) growth on the ground from buried wood, and 5) microscopic characters including generative hyphae with clamp connections. The online Species Fungorum, accessed September 3, 2018, gave the current name as Picipes melanopus (Pers.) Zmitr. & Kovalenko International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms (Redding) 18(1): 36. (2016), but MycoBank, accessed the same day, gave that name as a synonym of Polyporus melanopus (Pers.) Fr.
Odor:
pleasant (Breitenbach)
Taste:
mild (Breitenbach)
Microscopic:
spores 7-9 x 3-3.5 microns, cylindric, smooth, inamyloid, colorless; basidia 4-spored, 18-28 x 6-8 microns, clavate, with basal clamp; cystidia none, cystidioles present, 16-21 x 4-5 microns, fusoid, with basal clamp; hyphae dimitic, generative hyphae of context 3-5 microns wide, colorless in KOH, thin-walled, with clamp connections, rarely branched, binding hyphae of context 2-7 microns wide, colorless, thick-walled, nonseptate, with occasionally branching; hyphae of trama similar, (Gilbertson), spores 6-8 x 3-4 microns, cylindric to oblong elliptic, inamyloid, (Phillips), spores 7-8 x 3-3.5 microns, (Breitenbach)
Spore Deposit:
white (Buczacki)
Notes:
Polyporus melanopus 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), and Europe, Asia, and Australia, (Breitenbach).
EDIBILITY
no (Phillips)
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
Polyporus badius is found on wood and has a bald stem, and the generative hyphae lack clamp connections, (Gilbertson). P. badius has similar colors but it has smaller pores (5-8 per mm), it fruits "on fallen branches and logs on the ground", and the stem is typically bald, (Ginns). Polyporus varius is found on wood, has a streaked cap, and has a bald stem, (Gilbertson). Polyporus elegans is usually much smaller and becomes whitish when old, besides being black only in the lower part of the stem, (Gilbertson). P. elegans (as P. leptocephalus) is typically smaller and occurs "on fallen branches and logs lying atop the ground", (Ginns). See also SIMILAR section of Polyporus radicatus which has an underground, root-like structure.Habitat
annual, on ground, presumably developing from buried wood of hardwoods and conifers, (Gilbertson), on ground or on buried wood (Phillips), single to gregarious, on buried dead wood of hardwoods and conifers, apparently only on soil, according to literature also on roots of hardwoods, (Breitenbach), late summer to fall (Buczacki)
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Plicaria trachycarpa (Curr.) Boud.