Hymenochaete corrugata
Description
Hymenochaete corrugata is a plant pathogen that causes glue crust in its hosts. This easily-overlooked crust fungus gets its name from its habit of migrating from one tree to another by gluing together twigs or small branches that are in contact.
Common names: Glue Crust.
Mushroom Identification
Outer (fertile) surface
Fruit bodies form resupinate crusts 0.1 - 0.2mm thick, firmly attached to the substrate. The pale grey to the brownish fertile surface is tinged lilac; it is uneven (corrugated) but seems fairly smooth until you look at it with a hand lens; then very fine surface hairs (settae) are visible. The mycelium spreads along with twigs, sometimes contacting another touching twig and 'gluing' the two together.
Brown but sometimes with a blackish skin, with age, the fruit bodies tend to develop surface cracks rather like miniature crazy paving or dried mud at the bottom of a lake during severe drought.
Spores
Ellipsoidal, smooth, 4.5-6 x 1.5-2μm; inamyloid.
Spore Print
White.
Odor and Taste
Not distinctive.
Habitat & Ecological Role
On living and dead broadleaf deciduous trees and shrubs, particularly hazel but also willows and occasionally other hardwoods.
Season
Perennial crusts persist throughout the year, but the growing season in Britain and Ireland is summer and autumn.
History
When, in 1815, Swedish mycologist Elias Magnus Fries described this crust fungus he named it Thelephora corrugata. The currently-accepted scientific name dates from an 1846 publication by French mycologist Joseph-Henri Léveillé (1796 - 1870).
Synonyms of Hymenochaete corrugata include Thelephora corrugata Fr., Corticium corrugatum (Fr.) Fr., Stereum corrugatum (Fr.) Quél., Hymenochaete agglutinans Ellis, Hymenochaete croceoferruginea Massee, and Hymenochaete corrugata f. conglutinans Bourdot & Galzin. Since its publication in 2012, some authorities have adopted a new genus, in which the Glue Crust fungus becomes Pseudochaete corrugata (Fr.) S. H. He & Y. C. Dai. This species has recently (2019) been reclassified as Hydnoporia corrugata (Fr.) K.H. Larss. & Spirin and this may become its generally accepted name.
Hymenochaete, the genus name, comes from hymen- a prefix referring to the fertile membrane (the crust surface), and -chaete from the Greek noun chaite meaning long hair and probably, therefore, referring to the fine hairs (settae) on the upper surfaces of fungi in this group.
The specific epithet corrugata means wrinkled or corrugated and refers to the often undulating and sometimes warty surface of this crust fungus.
Hymenochaete corrugata Hosts & Symptoms
Hosts and symptoms are crucial to know when trying to identify a pathogen of disease. For the pathogen to be identified, its common hosts and key symptoms must be accessible. The primary hosts of Hymenochaete corrugata are broad-leaved trees, primarily hazel and willow. The disease is called glue crust and stems from the pathogen's habit of moving across trees and gluing together twigs and branches that are in contact with each other.
Common symptoms are an uneven surface caused by setae (surface hairs) and a grey or brown surface tinted lilac on the tree bark. The main sign is the presence of white fruiting bodies that form crusts attached to the trees, typically on the bark of the trunk. Setae can also be seen on the tree bark in the trunk and branches. These fruiting bodies develop cracks over time.
Photo sources:
Photo 1 - Author: Jess Evans (JBE16) (CC BY-SA 3.0)