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Species Information
Summary: Features include an orange sponge-like fruiting body with large pores that often become tooth-like, and flat growth on the underside of conifer wood from which it peels off in a continuous layer. It is conspicuous in the spruce-fir zone of western mountains.
Pycnoporellus alboluteus is found in BC, WA, OR, ID, AB, ON, AK, AZ, CA, CO, MI, MT, NM, NY, UT, and WY, (Gilbertson), and PQ (Lincoff).
Cap: often spread out up to 100cm or more, growing flat on wood with pore surface exposed, or slightly bent outward to form shelf-like cap, soft and spongy, loosely strigose [hairy]; bright orange when fresh, (Gilbertson), surface of cap when present bright orange but fading or weathering to whitish, (Arora)
Flesh: up to 0.2cm thick, soft-felty; pale orange, not zoned, (Gilbertson)
Pores: mostly over 1mm wide, angular, walls splitting to form teeth; tube layer up to 2cm thick, colored as flesh and continuous with it, (Gilbertson), 1-3mm or more wide, angular, the walls often jagged or splitting to form teeth; whitish or yellowish soon becoming orange (or tubes orange with white edges); tube layer 1-3cm, (Arora)
Chemical Reactions: all tissues quickly cherry red in KOH, (Gilbertson)
Microscopic: spores 9-14 x 3-3.5 microns, cylindric, smooth, inamyloid, colorless; basidia 4-spored, 30-45 x 6-7 microns, clavate, simple-septate at base; cystidia frequent, 60-120 x 5-10 microns, cylindric, thin-walled to moderately thick-walled, colorless, not incrusted, simple-septate at base; hyphae monomitic, hyphae of context 2-10 microns, bright reddish then colorless in KOH, thin-walled to thick-walled, with frequent branching, appearing rough because of a thin incrustation, simple-septate, hyphae of trama 3-5 microns wide, similar, (Gilbertson), spores (7)10-14 x 3-4 microns, (Arora)
Spore Deposit: white (Arora)
Habitat / Range
annual, on dead conifers, especially Picea (spruce), occasionally on aspen, associated with brown cubical rot of conifer and aspen logs covered by snow in winter, (Gilbertson), on fallen logs of conifers, usually on undersides, often developing in snow, mainly in spring but persisting later in the year, (Arora), on conifers, especially Picea, infrequently on Populus, developing "in spring in association with receding snow banks", (Ginns)
Similar Species
Pycnoporellus fulgens is commonly bracket-like or bent outward from pore surface to form cap, and has smaller pores, spores, and cystidia, (Gilbertson). P. fulgens is typically semicircular or distinctly reflexed (bent outward to form a cap) with smaller pores 2-3 per mm, smaller cystidia measuring 45-60 x 4-6 microns, and smaller spores measuring 6-9 x 2.5-4.0 microns, (Ginns).
