Giant Polypore
(Beech Root Rot, or Black-staining Polypore)
Description
Fruit-body annual, in a tuft consisting of multiple, imbricate, fan-shaped to semicircular caps, Ø 20-80 cm. Cap 10-30 cm wide, 1-3 cm thick. Upper surface undulate, concentrically zoned, felted, yellow to dark red-brown, growing from a bulb, with acute, undulate, scored, whitish to black margin.
Tubes up to 10 mm long, whitish cream. Pores 3-5 per mm, white to cream, turning brown-black when touched. Flesh fibrous, soft, whitish cream. Smell fungus-like.
Spore-print colour white.
Occurrence
Common at the base and apparently on the soil on roots of old living deciduous trees (Beech, Oak, Lime, Elm, Birch, Plane, Apple). Summer to autumn.
Parasitic.
Related and/or similar species
- Grifola frondosa