Spongipellis pachyodon
Description
Spongipellis pachyodon is a species of fungus belonging to the family Polyporaceae. It is an inedible soft toothed polypore. Stalkless caps are white to ochraceous; finely tomentose to glabrous; white to ochre tubes initially poroid but eroding to form flattened and cylindrical teeth 0.5 to 1.5 cm in length; teeth often decurrent onto effused portions.
Found early September growing from a living oak tree (which will soon be a dead oak tree because of this parasitic fungus).
Common names: Spongy Toothed Polypore.
Mushroom Identification
Ecology
Parasitic on oaks and other hardwoods; causing a white heart rot; annual; growing gregariously or in shelving or fused clusters; summer and fall; widely distributed in eastern North America.
Fruiting Body
Variable: sometimes merely a spreading pore surface; sometimes with a folded-over edge of a cap; sometimes with poorly to well-developed caps.
Cap
Up to about 5 cm across and 5 cm deep; planoconvex to flat; very finely velvety, becoming bald; white to dull yellowish; sometimes finely radially grooved.
Pore Surface
Creamy white to dull yellowish; not bruising appreciably; composed of flattened tooth-like spines and irregular, angular pores; spines to about 1 cm deep.
Stem
Absent.
Flesh
Whitish; soft above and tougher below.
Odor
Not distinctive.
Spore Print
Presumably white.
Microscopic Features
Spores 5-6.5 µ; smooth; globose; inamyloid; thick-walled. Cystidia absent. Hyphal system monomitic; clamp connections present.
Synonyms
Irpiciporus pachyodon
Hydnum pachyodon Pers.
Irpex mollis Berk & M.A. Curtis
Sarcodontia pachyodon (Pers.) Spirin
Photo sources:
Photo 1 - Author: Henk Monster (CC BY 3.0)
Photo 2 - Author: Deana Thomas (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo 3 - Author: James V. Gallagher IV (lbjvg) (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Photo 4 - Author: Henk Monster (CC BY 3.0)