Inonotus dryadeus

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Inonotus dryadeus
Inonotus dryadeus example.jpg
Inonotus dryadeus on an oak tree
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Basidiomycota
Class: Agaricomycetes
Order: Hymenochaetales
Family: Hymenochaetaceae
Genus: Inonotus
Species:
I. dryadeus
Binomial name
Inonotus dryadeus
(Pers.: Fr.) Murr. [1]
Synonyms

Polyporus dryadeus Pers.: Fr.

Inonotus dryadeus (syn. Pseudoinonotus dryadeus), commonly known as oak bracket, warted oak polypore, weeping polypore or weeping conk, is an inedible species of fungus belonging to the genus Inonotus, which consists of bracket fungi with fibrous flesh. Most often found growing at the base of oak trees, it causes white rot and decay of the trunks. It secretes an amber liquid which weeps from tubes in its upper surface.

Contents

Description

A close-up of the fruit body showing its exudate. Inonotus dryadeus oozing.JPG
A close-up of the fruit body showing its exudate.

The thick fruiting body of Inonotus dryadeus varies in size from 5 to 30 centimetres (2.0 to 11.8 in) in width, [2] although specimens up to 75 centimetres (30 in) have been found. [3] Its velvety upper surface is cream to rusty brown with a yellower margin, and is pitted with tubes up to 3 cm deep which ooze an orange-brown liquid when the fruit body is young, [1] [4] hence the name "weeping conk". [3]

On the buff underside there are 4 to 6 fine pores per millimetre. These are initially greyish-white but mature to yellow or ochre. [5]

The flesh is soft and fibrous, yellow-brown in colour and has an unpleasant odour. [4]

Spores

The spores are white, smooth and globose, with dimensions in the range of 6.5–8×7–8  μm. [2]

Similar species

I. cuticularis grows on beech, sycamore and elm.

Habitat and distribution

Inonotus dryadeus is a parasitic saprobic fungus, [1] with spores entering wounds on broadleaf trees (predominantly oak, although sometimes maple, elm and chestnut). [4] The fungus is primarily a root decay fungus, rotting the below−ground parts of roots. Detection is often difficult if the conks have not developed. The fruiting conks appear close to the ground on the trunk, thickly attached, and either singly or in groups.

It has been observed in North America and temperate northern Europe, where it is described as widespread but locally common. [4] Fruiting occurs in summer and autumn, but fruit bodies may overwinter and persist for several years, eventually turning black and cracked. Presence of a fruit body may indicate that the mycelium has penetrated and weakened the root crown of the tree. [3]

Related Research Articles

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<i>Fistulina hepatica</i> Species of fungus

Fistulina hepatica, commonly known as the beefsteak fungus, beefsteak polypore, poor man’s steak, ox tongue, or tongue mushroom, is an unusual bracket fungus classified in the Agaricales, that is commonly seen in Britain and the rest of Europe, but which can be found in North America, Australia, North Africa, and Southern Africa. As its name suggests, it looks remarkably similar to a slab of raw meat. It has been used as a meat substitute in the past, and can still be found in some French markets. It has a sour, slightly acidic taste. For eating, it must be collected young and it may be tough and need to be cooked for a long time.

<i>Laetiporus sulphureus</i> Species of fungus

Laetiporus sulphureus is a species of bracket fungus found in Europe and North America. Its common names are crab-of-the-woods, sulphur polypore, sulphur shelf, and chicken-of-the-woods. Its fruit bodies grow as striking golden-yellow shelf-like structures on tree trunks and branches. Old fruitbodies fade to pale beige or pale grey. The undersurface of the fruit body is made up of tubelike pores rather than gills.

<i>Fomitopsis pinicola</i> Stem decay fungus

Fomitopsis pinicola, is a stem decay fungus common on softwood and hardwood trees. Its conk is known as the red-belted conk. The species is common throughout temperate Europe and Asia. It is a decay fungus that serves as a small-scale disturbance agent in coastal rainforest ecosystems. It influences stand structure and succession in temperate rainforests. It performs essential nutrient cycling functions in forests. As well as a key producer of brown rot residues that are stable soil components in coniferous forest ecosystems. It has been reported that mushrooms have significant antioxidant activity.

<i>Ganoderma applanatum</i> Species of fungus

Ganoderma applanatum is a bracket fungus with a cosmopolitan distribution.

<i>Inonotus obliquus</i> Species of fungus

Inonotus obliquus, commonly called chaga, is a fungus in the family Hymenochaetaceae. It is parasitic on birch and other trees. The sterile conk is irregularly formed and resembles burnt charcoal. It is not the fruiting body of the fungus, but a sclerotium or mass of mycelium, mostly black because of a substantial amount of melanin.

<i>Heterobasidion annosum</i> Species of fungus

Heterobasidion annosum is a basidiomycete fungus in the family Bondarzewiaceae. It is considered to be the most economically important forest pathogen in the Northern Hemisphere. Heterobasidion annosum is widespread in forests in the United States and is responsible for the loss of one billion U.S. dollars annually. This fungus has been known by many different names. First described by Fries in 1821, it was known by the name Polyporus annosum. Later, it was found to be linked to conifer disease by Robert Hartig in 1874, and was renamed Fomes annosus by H. Karsten. Its current name of Heterobasidion annosum was given by Brefeld in 1888. Heterobasidion annosum causes one of the most destructive diseases of conifers. The disease caused by the fungus is named annosus root rot.

<i>Laricifomes officinalis</i> Species of fungus

Laricifomes officinalis, also known as agarikon, eburiko, or the quinine conk, is a wood-decay fungus that causes brown heart rot on conifers native to Europe, Asia, and North America, as well as Morocco. This fungus is the only member of the genus Laricifomes, in the order Polyporales. The fruiting bodies grow in large conks on the trunks of trees.

<i>Gloeophyllum sepiarium</i> Species of fungus

Gloeophyllum sepiarium, the rusty gilled polypore, is a wood decay fungus that causes a brown rot. Gloeophyllum sepiarium grows in thin, dark brown/green brackets on dead conifers. Often found on wood in lumberyards, the fruiting body grows for only one year, and produces spores in late summer and autumn. Its hymenial surface is distinctive from other polypores due to the presence of gills. Gloeophyllum sepiarium is inedible.

<i>Onnia tomentosa</i> Species of fungus

Onnia tomentosa is a species of fungus in the family Hymenochaetaceae commonly known as the woolly velvet polypore. It is frequently found in coniferous forests at higher altitudes, often growing in large groups, rather rare at lower altitudes. It is a plant pathogen, and causes tomentosus root rot, primarily in spruce. It was formerly known as Inonotus tomentosum (Fr.) Teng until molecular phylogenetic analysis led to major revisions in the classification of the Hymenochaetaceae.

<i>Porodaedalea pini</i> Species of fungus

Porodaedalea pini, commonly known as the pine conk, is a species of fungus in the family Hymenochaetaceae. It is a plant pathogen that causes tree disease commonly known as "red ring rot" or "white speck". This disease, extremely common in the conifers of North America, decays tree trunks, rendering them useless for lumber. It is a rot of the heartwood. Signs of the fungus include shelf-shaped conks protruding from the trunks of trees. Spores produced on these conks are blown by the wind and infect other trees. Formal management of this disease is limited, and the disease is controlled primarily by cultural practices. Red ring rot is an important forest disturbance agent and plays a key role in habitat formation for several forest animals.

<i>Daedaleopsis confragosa</i> Species of fungus

Daedaleopsis confragosa, commonly known as the thin walled maze polypore or the blushing bracket, is a species of polypore fungus in the family Polyporaceae. A plant pathogen, it causes a white rot of injured hardwoods, especially willows. The fruit bodies are semicircular and tough, have a concentrically zoned brownish upper surface, and measure up to 20 cm (8 in) in diameter. The whitish underside turns gray-brown as the fruit body ages, but bruises pink or red. It is found all year and is common in northern temperate woodlands of eastern North America, Europe, and Asia. The species was first described from Europe in 1791 as a form of Boletus, and has undergone several changes of genus in its taxonomic history. It acquired its current name when Joseph Schröter transferred it to Daedaleopsis in 1888.

<i>Phaeolus schweinitzii</i> Species of fungus

Phaeolus schweinitzii, commonly known as velvet-top fungus, dyer's polypore, dyer's mazegill, or pine dye polypore, is a fungal plant pathogen that causes butt rot on conifers such as Douglas-fir, spruce, fir, hemlock, pine, and larch. P. schweinitzii is a polypore, although unlike bracket fungi the fruiting body may appear terrestrial when growing from the roots or base of the host tree.

<i>Meripilus giganteus</i> Species of fungus

Meripilus giganteus is a polypore fungus in the family Meripilaceae. It causes a white rot in various types of broadleaved trees, particularly beech (Fagus), but also Abies, Picea, Pinus, Quercus and Ulmus species. This bracket fungus, commonly known as the giant polypore or black-staining polypore, is often found in large clumps at the base of trees, although fruiting bodies are sometimes found some distance away from the trunk, parasitizing the roots. M. giganteus has a circumboreal distribution in the northern Hemisphere, and is widely distributed in Europe. In the field, it is recognizable by the large, multi-capped fruiting body, as well as its pore surface that quickly darkens black when bruised or injured.

<i>Phellinus igniarius</i> Species of fungus

Phellinus igniarius, commonly known as the willow bracket, fire sponge,false tinder polypore, or false tinder conk, is a fungus of the family Hymenochaetaceae. Like other members of the genus of Phellinus, it lives by saprotrophic nutrition, in which the lignin and cellulose of a host tree is degraded and is a cause of white rot.

<i>Bridgeoporus</i> Genus of fungi

Bridgeoporus is a fungal genus in the family Polyporaceae. A monotypic genus, it contains the single polypore species Bridgeoporus nobilissimus, first described to science in 1949. Commonly known both as the noble polypore and the fuzzy Sandozi, this fungus produces large fruit bodies that have been found to weigh up to 130 kilograms (290 lb). The upper surface of the fruit body has a fuzzy or fibrous texture that often supports the growth of algae, bryophytes, or vascular plants.

<i>Fuscoporia torulosa</i> Species of fungus

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 in coniferous trees in North America.

<i>Fomes fomentarius</i> Species of fungus

Fomes fomentarius is a species of fungal plant pathogen found in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. The species produces very large polypore fruit bodies which are shaped like a horse's hoof and vary in colour from a silvery grey to almost black, though they are normally brown. It grows on the side of various species of tree, which it infects through broken bark, causing rot. The species typically continues to live on trees long after they have died, changing from a parasite to a decomposer.

<i>Hapalopilus rutilans</i> Species of fungus

Hapalopilus rutilans is a species of polypore fungus in the family Polyporaceae. Officially described in 1821, it was transferred to its current genus Hapalopilus six decades later. It is commonly known as the tender nesting polypore, purple dye polypore, or the cinnamon bracket. This widely distributed species is found on five continents. It grows on the fallen or standing dead wood of deciduous trees, in which it fruits singly, in groups, fused, or in overlapping clusters. Fruit bodies are in the form of kidney-shaped to semicircular, cinnamon-orange-brown brackets. The underside of the fruit body features a yellowish to brownish pore surface with tiny angular pores, from which spores are released.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Gary Emberger (2008). "Inonotus dryadeus". Messiah College. Archived from the original on 29 September 2020. Retrieved 30 July 2010.
  2. 1 2 Pegler, David (2001) [1990]. Mushrooms & Toadstools of Britain and Europe. Kingfisher field guides. Kingfisher Books Ltd. p. 155. ISBN   978-0-86272-565-5.
  3. 1 2 3 Swiecki, Tedmund; Bernhardt, Elizabeth (July 2006). "A Field Guide to Insects and Diseases of California Oaks" (PDF). United States Department of Agriculture . Retrieved 30 July 2010.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Evans, Shelley; Kibby, Geoffrey (June 2004). Fungi. Pocket Nature. Dorling Kindersley. p. 226. ISBN   978-0-7513-3696-2.
  5. Sterry, Paul; Hughes, Barry (September 2009). British Mushrooms & Toadstools. Collins Complete Guides. Collins. p. 286. ISBN   978-0-00-723224-6.