Trametes hirsuta

Description

Trametes hirsuta is a polypore mushroom in the Polyporaceae family. It grows on dead wood of deciduous trees, especially beechwood. It is found all year round and persists due to its leathery nature. The cap is whitish gray, with short hairs, sometimes yellowish and tomentose at the edge, and with subtle zoning. The flesh is tough with a soft gray upper layer and a whitish lower layer, separated by a black plane. It also has a characteristic smell when wet. Inedible but effective decomposer, cause white rot.

Common names: Hairy Bracket, Striegelige Tramete (German), Tramète hirsute (France), Ruig elfenbankje (Netherlands), Outkovka chlupatá (Czech Republic).

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   Up to 10 cm across and 6 cm deep; semicircular, irregularly bracket-shaped, or kidney-shaped; often fusing laterally with other caps; very densely hairy; often finely, radially furrowed; with concentric zones of texture; zones with gray, whitish, and brownish shades, but usually not contrasting markedly; margin often brownish to brown or blackish.

2. Pore Surface

   Whitish, becoming a little brownish, grayish, or yellowish with age; with 3-4 circular to angular pores per mm; tubes with fairly thick walls, to 6 mm deep.

3. Flesh

   Insubstantial; whitish; tough and corky.

4. Spore Print

   White.

5. Habitat

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

6. Microscopic Features

   Spores 6-9 x 2-2.5 µ; smooth; cylindric; inamyloid. Cystidia absent. Hyphal system trimitic.

Look-Alikes

1. Trametes pubescens

   The paler bracket with a finely downy rather than coarsely hairy upper surface.

2. Trametes gibbosa

   Larger, almost white and stiff.

3. Coriolopsis trogii

   Has long bristly hairs that become rough when dry.

4. Trametes ochracea

   Has smaller fruiting bodies that are colored yellow-ochre when young.

Medicinal Properties

Trametes hirsuta is a medicinal mushroom that produces laccase. Laccases oxidize a variety of phenolic substrates, performing one-electron oxidations, leading to crosslinking.

For example, laccases play a role in the formation of lignin by promoting the oxidative coupling of monolignols, a family of naturally occurring phenols. The ability of laccases to degrade various aromatic polymers has led to research into their potential for bioremediation and other industrial applications. Laccases have been applied in the production of wines as well as in the food industry. Studies utilizing fungal and bacterial laccases to degrade emerging pollutants have also been conducted. In particular, it has been shown that laccases can be applied to catalyze the degradation and detoxification a large range of aromatic contaminants, including azo dyes, bisphenol A and pharmaceuticals.

History

In 1789 Austrian mycologist Franz Xavier von Wulfen (1728 - 1805) described this species and named it Polyporus hirsutus. In 1924 American mycologist Curtis Gates Lloyd change the name of this fungus to Trametes hirsuta.

The genus name Trametes comes from the prefix tram- meaning thin. The specific epithet hirsuta is a reference to the Latin adjective hirsutus, meaning coarsely hairy, which is a regard to the hairy upper surfaces of the mushroom.

Synonyms

• Boletus hirsutus Wulfen, 1791

• Boletus fibula Sowerby, 1803

• Boletus hirsutus Wulfen, 1788

• Boletus nigromarginatus Schwein., 1822

• Boletus velutinus J.J. Planer, 1788

• Boletus wulfenii Humb., 1793

• Coriolus hirsutus (Wulfen) Quél., 1886

• Coriolus nigromarginatus (Schwein.) Murrill, 1905

• Coriolus vellereus (Berk.) Pat., 1921

• Coriolus velutinus P. Karst., 1906

• Daedalea polyzona sensu auct., 2005

• Fomes gourliei (Berk.) Cooke, 1885

• Hansenia vellerea (Berk.) P.Karst., 1880

• Microporus galbanatus (Berk.) Kuntze, 1898

• Microporus hirsutus (Wulfen) Kuntze, 1898

• Microporus nigromarginatus (Schwein.) Kuntze, 1898

• Microporus vellereus (Berk.) Kuntze, 1898

• Polyporus aureus Berk., 1843

• Polyporus cinerascens Lév., 1844

• Polyporus cinereus Lév., 1846

• Polyporus fagicola Velen., 1922

• Polyporus galbanatus Berk., 1843

• Polyporus gourliei Berk., 1860

• Polyporus hirsutus (Wulfen) Fr., 1821

• Polyporus vellereus Berk., 1842

• Polystictoides hirsutus (Wulfen) Lázaro Ibiza, 1916

• Polystictus cinerescens (Lév.) Sacc., 1888

• Polystictus galbanatus (Berk.) Cooke, 1886

• Polystictus hirsutus (Wulfen) Fr., 1851

• Polystictus hirtellus Fr., 1851

• Polystictus nigromarginatus (Schwein.) P.W.Graff, 1921

• Polystictus vellereus (Berk.) Fr., 1851

• Scindalma gourliei (Berk.) Kuntze, 1898

• Trametes hirsuta (Wulfen) Lloyd, 1924

• Trametes porioides Lázaro Ibiza, 1917

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