Trametes versicolor (L.: Fr.) Pilat
turkey-tail
Polyporaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
turkey-tail
Polyporaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
Species Information
Summary:
{See also Trametes versicolor and similar polypores Table.} Care must be taken not to confuse this genus with Stereum (see Crust category), whose underside will not reveal pores when examined with a hand lens. Trametes versicolor forms thin leathery bracket-like or shelf-like clustered caps that are strongly zoned with narrow concentric bands of contrasting colors, hairy zones usually alternating with silky-smooth ones. The underside is whitish to yellowish or grayish and has small pores easily visible with a hand lens. It is very common on hardwood logs, stumps and branches. Stereum hirsutum is also common and looks somewhat similar, but a hand lens does not reveal pores on the underside (see Crust category). On conifers, compare with the common Trichaptum abietinum.
Odor:
not distinctive (Phillips)
Taste:
not distinctive (Phillips)
Microscopic:
spores 5-6 x 1.5-2 microns, cylindric, slightly curved, smooth, inamyloid, colorless; basidia 4-spored, 15-20 x 4-5 microns, clavate, with basal clamp; cystidia absent; hyphae trimitic, generative hyphae of context 2.5-3 microns wide, "thin-walled, with clamps", skeletal hyphae of context 4-6 microns wide, "thick-walled, nonseptate", binding hyphae of context 2-4 microns wide, "thick-walled, nonseptate, much branched"; hyphae of trama similar, (Gilbertson), spores 4-6 x 1.5-2.5 microns, (Arora)
Spore Deposit:
white or yellowish (Arora)
Notes:
Trametes versicolor is found in BC, WA, OR, ID, AB, MB, NB, NF, NS, ON, PE, PQ, SK, YT, AK, AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WI, WV, and WY, (Gilbertson)
EDIBILITY
no (Phillips)
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
Stereum species, especially the common Stereum hirsutum, may look somewhat similar, but a hand lens does not reveal pores. Trametes hirsuta is less brightly colored and more hairy, and tends to be larger, (Arora). T. hirsuta is usually less obviously zoned, (Trudell). T. hirsuta also has larger spores. Trametes ochracea is paler and less zoned, has a rigid hard consistency (not thin and flexible), lacks the black layer in the context, and has slightly larger pores and spores, (Gilbertson). Trametes pubescens forms a uniformly white to cream or buff bracket or shelf that is tomentose (coarsely hairy to finely tomentose) and nonzoned or with almost unicolorous zones. Trichaptum abietinum has a gray, non-zoned cap, and a poroid to tooth-like spore surface that is when fresh is lavender to purple. Cerrena has gray to pale brown or green, grooved cap, and a maze-like gray pore surface.Habitat
typically "in groups, rows, tiers, shelving masses, or overlapping clusters on logs, stumps, and fallen branches of dead hardwoods", "sometimes also on wounds in living trees and rarely on conifers", (Arora), annual, often in large imbricate [shingled] clusters on dead wood of numerous genera of hardwoods, associated with a white rot of dead hardwoods, (Gilbertson), fruiting from late spring to fall (Miller), may be seen year round (Buczacki)
Status Information
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Coriolus versicolor (L.: Fr.) Quel.
Helotium virgultorum (Vahl) Fr.
Phialea virgultorum Sacc.
Polyporus versicolor L.: Fr.