Summary:
Features include 1) growth as a horizontally flattened whitish bracket that is tomentose to bristly and becomes brownish, 2) duplex flesh that is succulent and soft, 3) rounded whitish pores in a thick layer, 4) growth on hardwoods, and 5) microscopic characters. The type of Spongipellis (Spongipellis spumeus) appears unrelated to the other two species here in the genus, and the latter have been placed in Cerrenaceae (Justo(6)).

Odor:
weakly anise-like (Breitenbach)

Taste:
mild (Breitenbach)

Microscopic:
spores 6-8.5 x 4.5-6 microns, round to broadly elliptic, smooth, inamyloid, colorless, thick-walled; basidia 4-spored, 25-30 x 7-9 microns, clavate, with basal clamp; cystidia absent; hyphae monomitic, generative hyphae "with clamp connections, in the trama 2-4.5 microns wide, in the context with slightly thickened walls" (rarely more than about 0.5 microns thick) "and numerous, large conspicuous clamps, colorless and intertwined, 4-9 microns wide", on the cap "3-7 microns wide and with a dense and partly grainy protoplasm", (Gilbertson), spores 6-8 x 4.5-5 microns, oval, smooth, inamyloid, colorless, rather thick-walled, (Breitenbach)

Spore Deposit:
white (Buczacki)

Notes:
Spongipellis spumeus has been found in BC, WA, ID, ON, PQ, CO, IA, IN, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NH, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VT, WI, and WV, (Gilbertson). It also occurs in Europe and Asia (Breitenbach).

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Cyathus dasypus Tul.
Cyathus vernicosus DC
Polyporus spumeus Sowerby: Fr.