Postia tephroleuca

Description

Postia tephroleuca is a species of fungus in the family Fomitopsidaceae infecting broad-leaved trees, typically beech and plane. It is a tinder fungus with sessile or outstretched-reclined fruiting bodies, widely attached, half or fan-shaped with a narrowed base, white, cream, grayish, with a very thin skin. The edge is blunt at first, becomes thinner with age, somewhat darker than the rest of the surface. The flesh is white, soft, juicy, and tastes sweet or sour (but not bitter). The hymenophore is white or yellowish, with slightly split pores in mature specimens. It grows on dead coniferous and deciduous wood in single specimens or small groups from separate fruiting bodies. It is difficult to distinguish from other white species from the genus Postia and Tyromyces.

Common names: Greyling Bracket.

Mushroom Identification

1. Fruiting Bodies

   Spread out-bent or have the appearance of sitting side caps.

2. Caps

   1 - 4 cm long, 2 - 8 cm wide, 1 - 2 cm thick, semicircular, fan-shaped, widely attached to the substrate, initially fleshy, watery, later hardening. The surface of the caps is radial-fibrous, hairy-fibrous, with age naked, wrinkled when dry, ashy-gray, cream, at the base sometimes lighter, whitish, near, near the edge darker. The edge is blunt, thin with age, darker than the surface of the cap.

3. Hymenophore

   Tubes 3 to 8 mm long, thin-walled, soft at first, later hard, white or yellowish. Pores with a diameter of 0.15 - 0.6 mm, first rounded or elongated, later tortuous or irregular in shape, with a solid, jagged or torn edge, density 4 - 6 per 1 mm.

4. Spores

   4-6 * 1-7.5 μm, cylindrical, slightly curved, often with 2 polar droplets, colorless.

5. Spore Print

   White.

6. Flesh

   3 - 10 mm thick, initially fleshy, watery, soft, sweet or sour, later brittle, hard, indistinctly zonal at the cut.

7. Habitat and Distribution

   Grow on fallen trunks, fallen branches and stumps of coniferous and deciduous trees, individually and in groups. Causes white rot of wood.

Synonyms

1. Polyporus tephroleucus Fr., 1821

2. Boletus tephroleucus (Fr.) Spreng., 1827

3. Bjerkandera tephroleuca (Fr.) P. Karst., 1882

4. Leptoporus tephroleucus (Fr.) Quél., 1886

5. Polystictus tephroleucus (Fr.) Bigeard & H. Guill., 1913

6. Tyromyces tephroleucus (Fr.) Donk, 1933

7. Spongiporus tephroleucus (Fr.) A. David, 1980

8. Oligoporus tephroleucus (Fr.) Gilb. & Ryvarden, 1985

9. Polyporus lacteus Fr., 1821

10. Polyporus elatinus Berk., 1854

11. Bjerkandera melina P. Karst., 1887

12. Bjerkandera simulans P. Karst., 1888

13. Bjerkandera cinerata P. Karst., 1890

14. Polyporus tokyoensis Lloyd, 1915

15. Polyporus tokyvensis Lloyd, 1915

16. Polyporus linearisporus Velen., 1922

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Jerzy Opioła (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 2 - Author: Jerzy Opiola (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 3 - Author: Jerzy Opioła (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Photo 4 - Author: Jerzy Opiola (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 5 - Author: Strobilomyces (CC BY-SA 4.0)