Trametes pubescens

Description

Trametes pubescens is a small and thin polypore. It has a cream-colored, finely velvety cap surface. Unlike most other turkey tail-like species of Trametes, the cap surface lacks strongly contrasting zones of color.
The underside (pore surface) is creamy white when young, turning yellowish with age. The flesh is whitish, tough, and watery when fresh, becoming dry, rigid, and corky. Aged specimens are often devoid of the velvety coating and hence more difficult to identify. It is inedible.

Grows on stumps and fallen logs of dead hardwood trees, and is commonly found in Europe and Northern America. In Japan, this bracket fungus has reportedly been prescribed as an adjunct to other treatments for cancer of the colon.

Common names: Samtige Tramete (German), Fluweelelfenbankje (Netherlands), Outkovka pýřitá (Czech Republic).

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   Up to 10 cm across and 6 cm deep; semicircular, irregularly bracket-shaped, or kidney-shaped; sometimes fusing laterally with other caps; velvety to finely velvety, sometimes becoming nearly bald with age; often finely, radially lined and furrowed, especially on the margin; cream-colored; sometimes with faint textural zones but without contrasting zones of color.

2. Pore Surface

   Creamy, becoming yellowish with age; with 3-5 angular pores per mm; tubes to 6 mm deep.

3. Flesh

   Insubstantial; whitish; tough and corky.

4. Spore Print

   White.

5. Odor and Taste

   Faint odor and mild flavor.

6. Season

   July to September

7. Habitat

   Saprobic on the deadwood of hardwoods (rarely reported on conifer wood); annual; causing a white rot; growing in clusters on logs and stumps; widely distributed across North America.

8. Microscopic Features

   Spores 5-7 x 1.5-2 microns, cylindric, slightly curved, smooth, inamyloid, colorless; basidia 4-spored, 14-18 x 4.5-6 microns, clavate, with basal clamp; cystidia absent, hyphal pegs usually present; hyphae trimitic, generative hyphae of context 2-3 microns wide, "thin-walled, rarely branched, with clamps", skeletal hyphae of context 5-10 microns wide, "thick-walled, with occasional branching, nonseptate", binding hyphae of context 1.5-3 microns wide, "thick-walled, nonseptate, much branched"; hyphae of trama similar, (Gilbertson), spores 5-6 x 1.7-2.5 microns, cylindric to slightly allantoid, smooth, inamyloid, colorless, (Breitenbach).

Look-Alikes

1. Trametes hirsuta

   Has a larger cap up to 6″ wide. The cap and margin are not radially striate. The margin is often brownish or blackish. The pore surface becomes, brownish, grayish, or yellowish with age.

2. Trametes ochracea

   Differs in having a thicker, duller cap, always zoned with felt bands of yellowish-brown, orange-brown to ferruginous.

3. Trametes versicolor

   Has a thinner cap, with variably colored areas and furrows.

History

In 1803 Danish mycologist Heinrich Christian Friedrich Schumacher described this species and named it Boletus Pubescens. In 1939 Czech mycologist Albert Pilát transferred this polypore to the genus Trametes.

The genus Trametes comes from the prefix tram- meaning thin. The specific epithet pubescens is a reference to the fine downy hairs on the velvety upper surfaces of young mushrooms.

Synonyms and Varieties

• Agaricus pubescens (Schumach.) E.H.L.Krause, 1932

• Bjerkandera pubescens (Schumacher) P. Karsten (1882), Bidrag till kännedom af Finlands natur och folk, 37, p. 41

• Bjerkandera velutina (Persoon) P. Karsten (1881), Acta societatis pro fauna et flora fennica, 2(1), p. 30

• Boletus pubescens Schumach., 1803

• Boletus velutinus Persoon (1794), in Usteri, Annalen der botanik, 11, p. 29

• Boletus velutinus subsp. velutinus

• Boletus velutinus var. albus Alb. & Schwein.

• Boletus velutinus var. lutescens Alb. & Schwein.

• Boletus velutinus var. velutinus Pers. 1794

• Coriolus applanatus P. Karsten (1904) [1903-04], Öfversigt af Finska vetenskaps-societetens förhandlingar, 46(11), p. 3

• Coriolus molliusculus (Berkeley) Murrill (1914), Northern Polypores, p. 8

• Coriolus pubescens (Schumacher) Quélet (1888), Flore mycologique de la France et des pays limitrophes, p. 391

• Coriolus pubescens f. amurensis Pilát

• Coriolus pubescens f. myriadopora Bourdot & Galzin

• Coriolus pubescens f. resupinatus Pilát

• Coriolus pubescens f. velutinus (Schumacher) Pilát (1936) [1935], Bulletin de la Société mycologique de France, 51, p. 365

• Coriolus pubescens forma velutinus (Pers.) Pilát 1936

• Coriolus pubescens subsp. pubescens

• Coriolus pubescens subsp. velutinus (Pers.) Pilát, 1936

• Coriolus sullivantii (Montagne) Murrill (1906) [1905], Bulletin of the Torrey botanical Club, 32(12), p. 650

• Coriolus velutinus (Persoon) Quélet (1886), Enchiridion fungorum in Europa media et praesertim in Gallia vigentium, p. 175

• Hansenia imitata P. Karsten (1886), Meddelanden af societas pro fauna et flora fennica, 13, p. 161

• Hansenia pubescens (Schumacher) P. Karsten (1888), Meddelanden af societas pro fauna et flora fennica, 16, p. 15

• Hansenia velutina (Persoon) P. Karsten (1879), Meddelanden af societas pro fauna et flora fennica, 5, p. 40

• Leptoporus pubescens (Schumacher) Patouillard (1900), Essai taxonomique sur les familles et les genres des hyménomycètes, p. 84

• Microporus imitatus (P. Karsten) Kuntze (1898), Revisio generum plantarum, 3, p. 496

• Microporus molliusculus (Berkeley) Kuntze (1898), Revisio generum plantarum, 3, p. 496

• Microporus sullivantii (Montagne) Kuntze (1898), Revisio generum plantarum, 3, p. 497

• Microporus velutinus (Persoon) Kuntze (1898), Revisio generum plantarum, 3, p. 497

• Polyporus hirsutus subsp. Persoon (1825), Mycologia europaea, seu complet omnium fungorum in variis europaeae regionibus detectorum enumeratio, 2, p. 73

• Polyporus molliusculus Berkeley (1847), in W.J. Hooker, The London journal of botany, 6, p. 320

• Polyporus pubescens (Schumacher) Fries (1815), Observationes mycologicae praecipue ad illustrandam floram suecicam, 1, p. 126

• Polyporus pubescens subsp. pubescens

• Polyporus pubescens var. grayi Cooke & Ellis

• Polyporus sullivantii Montagne (1842), Annales des sciences naturelles, botanique, série 2, 18, p. 243

• Polyporus velutinus (Persoon) Fries (1821), Systema mycologicum, 1, p. 368

• Polyporus velutinus var. stratosus Jungh.

• Polystictus applanatus (P. Karsten) Saccardo & D. Saccardo (1905), Sylloge fungorum omnium hucusque cognitorum, 17, p. 129

• Polystictus imitatus (P. Karsten) Saccardo (1888), Sylloge fungorum omnium hucusque cognitorum, 6, p. 259

• Polystictus molliusculus (Berkeley) Fries (1851), Novae symbolae mycologicae. Fasciulus primus, sistens fungos in peregrinis terris a botanicis danicis nuper collectos, p. 68

• Polystictus pubescens (Schumacher) Gillot & Lucand (1890), Société d'histoire naturelle d'Autun, Bulletin, 3, p. 175

• Polystictus sullivantii (Montagne) Fries (1851), Novae symbolae mycologicae. Fasciulus primus, sistens fungos in peregrinis terris a botanicis danicis nuper collectos, p. 68

• Polystictus velutinus (Persoon) Cooke (1886), Grevillea, 14(71), p. 83

• Polystictus velutinus var. stratosus (Jungh.) Sacc.

• Trametes applanatus P.Karsten

• Trametes pubescens (Schumacher) Pilát (1939), Atlas des champignons de l'Europe, 3, Polyporaceae, p. 268

• Trametes pubescens var. anthopora Zmitr., Bukharova & Malysheva

• Trametes pusillus Lloyd (1918), Mycological writings, 5, mycological notes n° 54, p. 774, fig. 1165

• Trametes quercina Lloyd (1922), Mycological writings, 7, mycological notes n° 66, p. 1114

• Trametes velutina (Persoon) G. Cunningham (1965), New Zealand Department of scientific and industrial research. Plant diseases division. Bulletin, 164, p. 173

• Tyromyces pubescens (Schumacher) Imazeki (1943), Bulletin of the Tokyo science Museum, 6, p. 84

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Dr. Hans-Günter Wagner (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Photo 2 - Author: Jerzy Opioła (CC BY-SA 2.5)

Photo 3 - Author: Judi T. (AvidAmateur) (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 4 - Author: Jason Swanson (Public Domain)