Skeletocutis nivea

Description

Skeletocutis nivea is one of about 30 poroid species in this genus, and it is also one of the most distinctive. As with most other bracket and crust-like mushrooms it can be found well into the winter months when most cap and stem fungi have been obliterated by frost. It is widespread across Europe and North America. The cap is frequently colored white and yellow and the color of the flesh is often brown, white, and yellow. The gills of Skeletocutis nivea are regularly colored white and yellow. The spore dust is frequently colored white.

This mushroom is considered to be poorly edible, in most cases it is inedible.

Common names: Hazel Bracket.

Mushroom Identification

1. Fruitbody

   Either resupinate or forming oval patches or brackets (sometimes fusing together), individually 2 to 5cm across and when in bracket form up to 2cm thick. The upper surface is initially whitish, but older specimens may become brown or dark grey with a whitish margin; the infertile surface is initially downy or tomentose becoming smooth but with irregular warts and pits. The cork-like flesh is fairly soft and white or very pale brown.

2. Fertile Surface

   White or cream, turning yellowish and bruising brown; all but the outer margin is covered in tubes, which are less than 2mm deep and terminate in tiny roundish pores spaced at 7 to 9 per mm.

3. Spores

   Cylindrical, smooth, slightly allantoid (sausage-shaped), 4-5 x 0.5-1µm; inamyloid.

4. Spore Print

   White.

5. Habitat

   Saprobic, on dead deciduous hardwood - notably fallen twigs of Haze or Ash - causing white rot.

6. Season

   Seen throughout the year, but the main season starts in June and ends in November.

History

Hazel Bracket was described scientifically in 1839 by German mycologist Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn, who gave it the binomial scientific name Polyporus niveus. The currently-accepted scientific name Skeletocutis nivea dates from a 1979 publication in Persoonia by the Swiss mycologist Dr. Jean Keller.

The generic name Skeletocutis comes from Skeleto- meaning withered or dried up, and -cutis meaning skin, while the specific epithet nivea means white, a reference to the color of the fertile surface of this fungus.

Synonyms

1. Incrustoporia nivea (Jungh.) Ryvarden

2. Incrustoporia semipileata (Peck) Domański

3. Tyromyces semipileatus (Peck.) Murrill

4. Leptotrimitus semipileatus (Peck.) Pouz

5. Trametes nivea

6. Polystictus niveus

7. Polyporus hymeniicola

8. Microporus niveus

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: James Lindsey (CC BY-SA 2.5)

Photo 2 - Author: James Lindsey (CC BY-SA 2.5)

Photo 3 - Author: amadej trnkoczy (amadej) (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 4 - Author: amadej trnkoczy (amadej) (CC BY-SA 3.0)