Trametes trogii

Description

Trametes trogii is a species of fungus belonging to the family Polyporaceae. Fruit bodies are capped, lateral, stiff, with characteristic yellowish bristly pubescence above, with irregular angular pores below. Often found on aspen.

It has an almost cosmopolitan distribution. Widespread in North America but reports are more common in the northeastern states, from Minnesota to Maine, and Ontario. Found in Europe, where it is threatened in some northern countries; Russia, and China.

Common names: Trog's Tramete.

Mushroom Identification

1. Fruitbody

   Polypore with sessile brackets but can be effused-reflexed or more rarely resupinate. Key characters are the large pores and the coarsely hispid cap surface: long, stiff, erect hairs, turning brown; context whitish. The bracket is hard, rigid, up to 6 to 12 cm wide, and projecting 2 to 4 cm. Upper surface hairs are pale to ochre-brown. Context below hairs whitish to cream, darkening with KOH. Context is lacking a black zone and has no sharp division between the context and the hairy covering.

2. Tubes

   Pale, thin-walled, and continuous with lower context; tube layer up to 1 cm thick.

3. Pore Surface

   Pale to honey-colored (darker on end view); pores angular to elongated, large, 1 or 2 per mm; pore surface can be uneven from lacerate (toothy) pore mouths. In age or when over-wintering the surface hairs can wear down but typically streaks (agglutinated hairs) are evident.

4. Hyphal System

   Trimitic with clamped generative hyphae, thick-walled skeletal hyphae, and branching binding hyphae.

5. Skeletal Hyphae

   Cyanophilous (dark blue with cotton blue stain) and metachromatic (bluish green-lilac with cresyl blue stain). Basidiospores cylindrical 7–9 × 2.5–4 µm.

6. Ecology

   White rot of dead hardwoods. Most often reported from quaking aspen but also found on other trees including willow, maple, birch, beech, elm, and oak.

7. Season

   Spring to fall, overwinters.

Look-Alikes

1. Trametella gallica

   Similar and also widespread but the context is rusty to umber brown and the spores are larger.

2. Trametopsis cervina

   Has less coarse hairs, coloration generally more yellow, brackets larger up to 21 × 5 cm; context not a duplex.

3. Trametes hirsuta

   Has a hirsute surface that has weak zones of gray, sometimes yellowish; pores are smaller and turn gray; pores round and surface even, not lacerate.

4. Trametes villosa

   Thinner and more flexible.

History

This species has also been placed in Cerrena and with other synonyms in Daedalea, Inodermus, Microporus, and Polyporus. Authors have been unsure where to place it between the Trametes group with white context and the Coriolopsis–Trametella group with brown context. DNA revealed it was related to various "Coriolopsis s.l." rather than Trametes. Unfortunately, the type species for Coriolopsis is a Trametes. Among the orphaned "Coriolopsis s.l.", T. trogii is paired with C. gallica, the type species for Trametella. These two species may become part of Funalia but this determination awaits sequencing the type species for Funalia.

Synonyms

• Cerrena trogii (Berk.) Zmitr., 2001

• Coriolopsis trogii (Berk.) Domański, 1974

• Coriolus maritimus (Quél.) Quél., 1888

• Daedalea trametes Speg., 1880

• Funalia trogii (Berk.) Bondartsev & Singer, 1941

• Inodermus maritimus Quél., 1887

• Microporus ozonioides (Berk.) Kuntze, 1898

• Polyporus maritimus (Quél.) Sacc., 1891

• Polyporus ozonioides Berk., 1851

• Polystictoides maritimus (Quél.) Lázaro Ibiza, 1916

• Polystictus ozonioides (Berk.) Cooke, 1886

• Striglia trametes (Speg.) Kuntze, 1891

• Trametella trogii (Berk.) Domański, 1968

• Trametes extenuata var. rhodostoma (Forq. ex Quél.) Pat., 1904

• Trametes favus var. trogii (Berk.) Bres., 1909

• Trametes gallica f. trogii (Berk.) Pilát, 1939

• Trametes gallica var. trogii (Berk.) Sacc., 1925

• Trametes hispida subsp. trogii (Berk.) Bourdot & Galzin, 1925

• Trametes hispida var. rhodostoma Forq. ex Quél., 1888

• Trametes lutescens f. trogii (Berk.) Bres., 1897

• Trametes maritima (Quél.) Pat., 1900

• Trametes ozonioides (Berk.) Mussat, 1901

• Trametes tucumanensis Speg., 1898

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Nina Filippova (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Photo 2 - Author: Michel Langeveld (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Photo 3 - Author: Garrett Taylor (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Photo 4 - Author: Nina Filippova (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Photo 5 - Author: Nina Filippova (CC BY-SA 4.0)