Fuscoporia torulosa
Description
Fuscoporia torulosa is a species of bracket fungus in the genus Fuscoporia, family Hymenochaetaceae. A wood-decay fungus, it causes a white rot of heartwood in dead and living hardwood trees in Europe, and coniferous trees in North America.
The fruiting bodies of this species are semicircular or shell-shaped, with dimensions of 12–30 centimeters (4.7–11.8 in) broad by 4–10 centimeters (1.6–3.9 in) long. The brackets are typically 1–3 centimeters (0.39–1.18 in) thick, although they can be considerably thicker at the point of the broad attachment to the tree. The color of the lower pore-bearing surface is cinnamon-, rust-, or olivaceous-brown, and there are 5 to 6 pores per millimeter.
Production of visible fruiting bodies by F. torulosa does not happen until long after the tree has been initially infected, as it takes some time for the fungal mycelia to colonize the host. For this reason, it often escapes detection until it is too late to save the tree. In 2007, a rapid detection method was reported that uses DNA technology, specifically the polymerase chain reaction, to enable the detection of fungal mycelia in infected tissues in roughly six hours.
Common names: Tufted Bracket.
Mushroom Identification
Fruitbody
Sessile (stemless) brackets, sometimes in tiers, grow to between 15 and 40 cm wide; they are laterally attached to tree trunks near their bases.
The upper (infertile) surface is dark brown and velvety, with a lighter tan to russet-brown, finely-velvet rounded margin. Often the upper surface of older brackets is covered at least partly in leaves, woody debris, mosses and algae making this an easy fungus to miss.
Tubes and Pores
The lower (fertile) surface is irregular but mostly covered in hymenial (spore-producing) tubes and pores. The tubes are brown, 2 to 8mm deep and they terminate in small roundish red-brown pores 0.1 to 0.2mm in diameter spaced at 4 to 6 per mm.
Spores
Ellipsoidal, smooth, thin-walled, hyaline, 4-6 x 3-4μm; inamyloid.
Spore Print
White.
Odor and Taste
Not significant.
Habitat & Ecological Role
Saprobic or weakly parasitic on broadleaf (hardwood) trees and in particular on oaks, olives, mastic trees and heathers. This bracket fungus is often seen on Carob trees; these brackets are invariably found near the base of the trunk.
Season
Perennial, releasing spores throughout late summer, autumn and early winter.
Similar Species
Fomes fomentarius is hoof-shaped with an overall grey appearance.
History
Christiaan Hendrik Persoon established the basionym of this species in 1818 when he described it under the scienific name Boletus torulosus Pers. The currently-accepted scientific name Fuscoporia torulosa dates from a 2001 publication by German mycologists T Wagner and M Fischer.
Synonyms of Fuscoporia torulosa include Boudiera rubripora (Quél.) Lázaro Ibiza, Fomes castaneae Woron., Fomes ceratoniae (Lázaro Ibiza) Sacc. & Trotter, and Phellinus torulosus (Pers.) Bourdot & Galzin.
Many field guides include this species under its synonymous scientific name Phellinus torulosus. In 1886 the genus Phellinus was circumscribed by French mycologist Lucien Quélet; that generic name comes from phell- meaning cork, while the suffix -inus denotes a superlative.
The implication, therefore, is that fungi in the genus Phellinus are the most cork-like (the toughest) of them all. The genus Fuscoporia was established in 2007 by American mycologist William Alphonso Murrill (1869 - 1957); the genus name comes from the Latin adjective fusca meaning dark brown and is a reference to the dusky (dark brown) pored surface of this polypore. The specific epithet torulosa comes from the Latin torosus or torulosus and means 'cylindrical with periodic knots, bulges and contractions'.
Photo sources:
Photo 1 - Author: Hectonichus (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Photo 2 - Author: Hectonichus (CC BY-SA 4.0)
