Abortiporus biennis
Description
Abortiporus biennis feeds on buried wood (roots, stumps) of dead trees and occasionally of conifers. It can also parasitize the roots of living trees. It eventually can develop a more typical-appearing rosette of caps and stems, but initially takes on several lumpy forms. It should ooze red droplets when the flesh is squeezed.
This mushroom occurs throughout many parts of Europe and North America where it grows as an amorphous mass of irregular maze-like pores exuding blobs of red-brown juice.
Common names: Bleeding or Blushing Rosette.
Mushroom Identification
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Cap
1.97–5.9 inches (5–15 cm) across; roundish-to semicircular, kidney-shaped, or irregular in outline; plano-convex; finely to thickly velvety, or sometimes more or less bald; dry; light brown to reddish-brown or tan, with a pale margin; sometimes with concentric zones of brown shades.
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"Aborted" Form
An irregular mass of exposed pore surface, with or without a clearly defined upper surface that is smooth and reddish-brown; ranging from singular and vaguely cup-shaped to clustered or nearly coral-like, with separated, individual projections; pore surface whitish to pinkish, bruising reddish to reddish-brown; pores angular to maze-like or irregular, 1–3 per mm; flesh tough, whitish to pinkish, when fresh exuding a pinkish to orangish liquid.
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Pore Surface
Whitish, bruising and discoloring reddish or pinkish brown; pores appearing "stuffed" when young, later angular to maze-like or irregular, 1–4 per mm; tubes to 5 mm deep.
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Stem
When present 1.18–3.94 inches (3–10 cm) long; 1–3 cm thick; lateral; tapering to base; soft and spongy; fuzzy; brownish.
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Flesh
White to pinkish or pale tan; exuding a pinkish juice when squeezed; tough.
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Spore Print
White.
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Habitat
Saprobic on the wood of hardwoods and occasionally conifers; growing alone or gregariously around the bases of stumps and living trees; causing a white rot in deadwood and a white trunk rot in living wood; summer and fall (also winter and spring in warm climates); widely distributed in North America.
Look-Alikes
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Devil’s Tooth (Hydnellum peckii) & Mealy Tooth (Hydnellum ferrugineum)
Found exclusively in old conifer forests near pine or spruce; have spines (teeth), not wide pores. Young fruit bodies secrete/ooze red droplets.
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Zoned Rosette (Podoscypha multizonata)
Prefers hardwoods, especially oaks; lacks visible pores on fruit bodies.
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Pink to red stained wood cauliflower (Sparassis crispa)
More closely resembles the described fungus than a Blushing Rosette.
Uses
Abortiporus biennis possesses a wide set of enzymes that metabolize lignin and phenolic compounds causing decomposition of polyphenols as well as polymerization of monolignols and is frequently applied in environmental biotechnologies.
History
In 1789, the French mycologist Jean-Baptiste François Pierre Briard described the species and gave it the binomial name Boletus biennis.
In 1944 German-American mycologist Rolf Singer gave this species the currently-accepted name Abortiporus biennis.
Abortiporus, the genus name, comes from the Latin Abortus- meaning arrested development (of an organism), and -porus, derived from ancient Greek and meaning a pore. The specific epithet biennis means biennial.
Synonyms
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Boletus biennis Bull.
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Sistotrema bienne (Bull.) Pers.
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Hydnum bienne (Bull.) Lam. & DC.
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Daedalea biennis (Bull.) Fr.
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Polyporus biennis (Bull.) Fr.
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Phaeolus biennis (Bull.) Pilát
Photo sources:
Photo 1 - Author: Iskra Kajevska (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo 2 - Author: AJC1 from UK (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Photo 3 - Author: zaca (CC BY-SA 3.0)